Before and after; Nilofer Merchant site ‘TBO’

2011 version…

What is TBO you ask? Why ‘total beauty makeover’ of course! Wednesdays are the days we talk about high-performing websites at elevation and today I like to share with you some recent work that I did for friend and client Nilofer Merchant…

I enjoy telling people that I have worked with Nilofer since the days when she was a mere mortal when our paths crossed at Apple in the late 90s. Since then, Nilofer has gone on to become an author, corporate director, and speaker while I became a humble social media mechanic. About 18 months ago, Nilofer had a ‘brochureware’ website and was blogging on Posterous. I ask ‘what’s a nice girl like you doing using sites like these’? Nilofer considered my question and came back a month or two later asking if I could guide her through the process of consolidating her Internet presence on WordPress. The picture you see above was the result of our first collaboration and it served her well for almost a year…

A month ago Nilofer approached me with the idea of giving the site a total beauty makeover in preparation for her September 12 book launch of 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #Social Era. Nothing could have made me happier because helping Nilofer promote her thinking is truly a labor of love!

As we talked about the new site we both agreed we wanted something simple and straightforward that would accurately communicate her brand. We chose a simple but powerful WordPress theme that would showcase images reflecting the different aspects of Nilofer’s brand. I really wanted the website to “get out of the way” so that people could see how beautiful SHE really is. I wish I could take credit for the images but she worked with Cooper Bates Photography to get what we needed and their images really carry the site. It was pretty easy going from that point forward; here is the result of our collaboration:

Click to go to website…

What about you? Does your website accurately reflect the beauty of your brand? If not, I’d be happy to work with you as well! You can use the contact form below to connect…

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Tumblr David Karp is no doubt breathing a huge sigh of relief as I’m officially announcing today I was may have been wrong about Tumblr…

Back in 2009, I was on the right track. I was very into Tumblr and the cool stuff they were doing but along came a bso [a ‘bright shiny object’] in the form of Posterous. I spent a very happy year with Posterous over the course of a 2.5 year period [don’t miss what I just said!]. Recently, I’ve been looking into Tumblr again and wondering why I ever left!

Recent experimentation with Tumblr has left me very impressed — in fact, I think Tumblr is the perfect curation tool for much of the work I do. While I’m still researching Tumblr’s Search Engine Optimization [SEO] benefits, I’m giving an early thumbs up to Tumblr as part of my blogging workflow. Again…

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Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…

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Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…

http://storify.com/e1evation/dollar-i-ve-posted-about-tumblr&#8221; target=”_blank”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;View the story “!@#$ I’ve posted about Tumblr” on Storify&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;]&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;h1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;!@#$ I’ve posted about Tumblr&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/h1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;h2&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/h2&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Storified by Todd Lohenry &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;middot; Fri, Apr 20 2012 15:48:15&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;h1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Some of my greatest Tumblr hits…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/h1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Hmmm. I think I may need to rethink Posterous… | e1evationI’ve been a fan of tumblr for a long time, but the fact that Guy Kawasaki chose Posterous for his ‘Holy Kaw’ blog got me thinking and tes…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust [?!] | e1evationImage via CrunchBase Rising social media rockstar Kelly Neuville of Envano sent me an article from ReadWriteWeb [you can follow the ‘via’…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;John Mayer, Katy Perry Agree: Tumblr Crushing Posterous | e1evationvia observer.com Hmmm. I’m a massive Posterous fan – it truly has changed my life, my business and my workflow. I do, however, have to do…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Blogging platform Posterous takes preposterous swipe at Tumblr | e1evationDirect attacks and unprovoked hostility are usually reserved for gossip blogs, not the people who make the platforms that power them. But…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Tumblr Now Has More Blogs Than WordPress.com | e1evationvia mashable.com What does this mean? Stick around – I’ll be breaking it down for you real soon. You can follow the ‘via’ link above if y…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;12 Essential News Media Tumblrs You Should Follow | e1evationvia mashable.com The world is all a Twitter about Tumblr, so I just took another look at it to see if there’s something I’m missing. Ther…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Two tools I ‘fired’ from my blogging workflow in 2011 | e1evationIt’s not me, it’s you…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;h1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Things that got me thinking…&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/h1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;undefinedTumblr&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;How Tumblr Helped Put My Site on Top : @ProBlogger http://twy.la/JbTuAIe1evation&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;5 Ways To Use Tumblr To Increase Traffic To Your Website : Innovation :: American Express OPEN Forum http://twy.la/IcRkO3e1evation&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Tumblr Reels in Big Traffic, Now 8x More Page Views Than http://Wordpress.com http://twy.la/HXSIBue1evation&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;How to get Tumblr Traffic http://twy.la/JeSaZ4e1evation&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;undefinedMshcdn&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Pretty Awesome 3D Metal WordPress Logo
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In many ways, blogging is no more difficult than sending an email and much more effective in the long run…

“If you’re a great baker or known for your mad IT skills, chances are you get asked the same things over and over again. You probably also end up fielding distress calls from frantic friends struggling with a pie gone awry or a blue screen of death. Instead of typing out the same email responses repeatedly or talking yet another person through a troubleshooting process, slap up a web page with your own personal Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) and answers.

Next time you’re tapping out 2 single-spaced pages to Aunt Gertrude describing photosynthesis in all its glory and splendor, consider emailing it to something like Posterous instead; then, fire Aunt Gertrude a link to the page. Now, not only will Trudy have all the chlorophyll-related knowledge [she] can tolerate, but Google will probably stop by and maybe send some other interested parties your way. And the next time somebody hits you up about it, you need only send them a link to that thing you already wrote instead of rehashing the same crap all over again!

We think that’s a pretty ingenious approach to helping people out with a minimum of impact on your valuable time. Of course, there will always be times when you’ll want to help someone directly instead of pushing them off to a web site, but building a personal FAQ is still a smart idea. Your friends and family will probably appreciate it, too, since they might feel weird about bothering you during the dinner hour to help them solve a problem. This way, they don’t have to.” Source: Create a Personal FAQ for Friends Who Want Your Advice – Troubleshooting – Lifehacker

I originally started blogging when I became chairman of a local volunteer organization. I didn’t want to spam members with every great article I found so I posted the ‘just in case’ info on a blog so I could save ‘just in time’ info for emails — that way I didn’t offend members with too much information and they actually kinda paid attention when I sent an email because they knew it wasn’t just another good website I found. A year later, I was stunned to see that my posts had attracted 25,000 pageviews from 93 countries and I was hooked on blogging forever…

This blog has evolved from the simple strategy outlined in the source. In many ways, the blog is little more than a repository for all the cool stuff I find every morning in my ‘virtual newspaper’. Like the source author, if I have something brilliant to say in email or a resource to share, I post it first and then send it based on the principle that if it’s worth sharing with one person, it’s worth sharing with billions. The fact of the matter is you don’t have time NOT to blog! Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to your organization…

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Commercial signs are a great way to generate leads — especially when they are combined effectively with social media! Learn how. Sign up here

Internet marketer Jack Humphrey has curated some great content in a post called “The Content Guide for Bloggers” which I in turn, have curated for you…

“Content curation as a blogging model is widely misunderstood by most bloggers and marketers. Many people would tell you that curation is about finding and posting links of related material around a certain topic or keyword.

And they would be wrong if the goal was to get people and search engines to appreciate and react to said content. (And if your goal is to use curation as a means to get attention, then make money, from what you are doing.)

Real content curation is a set of links and snippets to other material on the web along with insightful, expert analysis provided by the curator.

There’s been an explosion of content on the web around “curation.” And new services that seek to make the process easier for different groups of users.” Source: The Content Curation Guide for Bloggers | Internet Marketing Consultant Jack Humphrey

In the model I teach my students, there are two main types of blog posts; creation and curation. Optimally, in my model, about 5-10% of my posts are creation posts. The rest is all curation. Why? Continue reading “Why curation rocks, part 1”

Don’t be alarmed!

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Yes, this is toddlohenry.com — I just moved my domain to a WordPress.com site instead of Posterous. It’s all still Posterous driven — it’s just that I’ve become convinced over the past six months that Posterous is not ready for the enterprise [unless you are Guy Kawasaki]. I still use it to curate content and autopost, but not as a destination site. Comment or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to your organization or your social media workflow…

Here’s my Alexa ranking…

…after a year on Posterous. Let’s see what WordPress.com can do with this domain! :-D

If I only had one tool to use for blogging, it wouldn’t be WordPress and it wouldn’t be Blogger [although both are great tools that I use every day] it would be Posterous. I’m currently scripting my own screencast on the subject of Posterous, but in the meantime, here are a couple of other good Posterous videos to whet your appetite…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oluAciipZU

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxeFOD5lZ4k

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6iYxbcGqNo

I use 4 out of the 5 platforms daily. WordPress is the hands down favorite of most people in this poll, but the real winner is anyone who uses both Posterous and WordPress together to drive traffic…

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

The beautiful view from my deck in rural northeast Wisconsin is a great reminder of the power I have to publish and promote; from anywhere to the ends of the internet!

I’ve worked hard to develop a simple blogging workflow that can empower even the most basic computer user. I don’t care if you’re Mac, Windows, Linux, or even Smartphone or iPad — my practical, tactical approach to social media can help  you publish and promote your passion whatever it might be. But “Wah!”, you might say, “I don’t want to learn anything new!” Can you send an email? Can you save a bookmark? Then I can teach you how you can leverage social media to help establish your thought leadership position…

We’re now in an unparalleled time in history where everyone has the power to publish — the question is, will you take advantage of it? I post here every day, day after day, the best of the insight God has given me into leveraging these new media tools. If it makes sense to you, use it, great! If not you know the drill — comment, call or contact me and I’ll be happy to net it out for you!

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

 

The logo of the blogging software WordPress.
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If, like many bloggers, you started out using a free hosting platform, there may come a time when you want the increased flexibility of a self-hosted paid platform.

The question many bloggers ask is: “Which blogging platform is the right one for my needs?” but the answer may be far from simple.

For a start there will rarely be just the one best platform for you to choose but you will often be confronted with a range of options which could fit the bill.

It may be that  you just want to  avoid some of the restrictions associated with your previous free blog such as limits over they type of content you can publish or restrictions on placing adverts on the blog.

If that is your only concern then you may not be too fussy about your new platform and your only consideration may be how easy it is to transfer your old blog to the new host.

We use a combination of Posterous + WordPress to accomplish our blogging objectives, but we’re well versed in many forms of Content Management Systems. Comment below or ‘connect’ above so we can talk about how this applies to your business…

This is icon for social networking website. Th...
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When it comes to blogging, executives have a unique problem. It has to do with the fact that the risk and cost of failure for executives are greater than they are for other employees.

Blogging is a personal affair. The learning curve requires the blogger to open up to the world, create content, build relationships, develop readership, get feedback, make modifications, and repeat.

That can be a lot of risk for anyone. But for the corporate executive, the pressure to “nail it” right out of the gate is more extreme…

Follow the ‘via’ link to go to the source if you’d like to read ‘the rest of the story’…

John Jantsch
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John Jantsch recently wrote on the topic of “Profiting from other people’s content”. He says…

“Don’t be alarmed by that title — I’m not talking about stealing content for gain, I’m talking about adding the filtering and aggregating of content to your content consumption, creation and sharing routine.

Pretty much everyone has bought into the idea that they need to produce lots of valuable content in order to build the trust and search engine eyes of today’s online prospect. One way to supplement your content strategy while still providing lots of value, is to get good at finding and filtering other people’s content that your prospects and customers will find useful as well. (Done right, the other people will thank you for giving a wider audience to their content).

It should go without saying that giving credit to the original source and full attribution to the author when appropriate is a must.” Source: Profiting From Other People’s Content | Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

John talks about his “consumption, creation and sharing routine” — my mantra is ‘listen, publish, promote’ which is a little more elegant in my book but we’re both trying to say the same thing and use an alliteration in the process. If I were John, I might go for ‘consume, create, communicate‘ — in fact, I might start using that instead. Either way, the point is that gathering good content effectively and commenting on it is a great way to build your personal brand. I’ve been using this strategy for years — most recently, I amped it up by using Posterous [another tool that John advocates] and saving more content directly to my blog instead of shared bookmarks as I used to do. Here are the results:

I think the results are really quite good for an ‘army of one’, don’t you? I do all my ‘creation and communication’ as a result of my daily ‘consumption’ — because my system is easy to implement and use, I work it frequently. I call quoting other sites ‘curation’ and my rare original thoughts ‘creation’. The curation works to draw people to my creation. Does it work? You betcha [you’re reading this, aren’t you?]. The average person drawn into my blog through effective communication reads 3.3 pages and spends 2:52 minutes on the site, while only 4.75% ‘bounce’ to another site. Over 71% are new visitors…

Jantsch goes on to give three tactical implementations of his ‘profiting from content’ suggestion. They are…

Make yourself a better resource

Creating a habit of filtering content related to your industry, products, competitors and customers will make you better at what you do, allow you to keep up with trends and give you data to help you build deeper relationships with customers.

Share content to draw attention

Pointing out useful resources and good finds is a great way to build your social media and blog followings. Consistently sharing relevant links and sharing them on Twitter is a strategy that many find helps them be seen as follow worthy. Creating a once a week blog post roundup of good stuff is a great way to add content and keep readers engaged.

Filter personalized content

A more advanced strategy is to use your filter skills to create your own industry research briefs. If you specialize in several market niches you can create laser specific new pages and email newsletter roundups that feature the best of what you find each week. You can even use RSS technology to deliver dynamically changing web content password protected for your best clients.” Source: Profiting From Other People’s Content | Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Clearly, John and I share a lot of the same ‘common sense’. He goes on to list 10 different resources [you can follow the link] you can use as tools to find other people’s content. One of them — Kurrently — is one I’ll have to add to my toolkit. For me, however, this is where we part ways. My paradigm is “Google Reader is the answer. Now what is the question?“.

I use Google Reader like a tactical nuke. It’s the one tool I use to manage the ‘rest of the internet’ and I use it like a virtual newspaper or better yet, news bureau, where I manage hundreds of little newsbots that do my news aggregation for me. I have 5 great ways to get relevant content into Google Reader and they include most of John’s 10 tools — it’s just that in my book, Google Reader is the one tool that rules them all. It really is the driver in my ‘e1evation workflow’ outlined below. Either you get it and you can use it or I can help you implement it but the point is that if you have a brand and you want to build it online, we can help…

e1evation, llc announces that Todd Lohenry has been named the interim VP of Marketing, Sales and Technology at Jag, Inc., one of Northeast Wisconsin’s oldest and most trusted names in advertising.

There are two objectives behind the move:

Introduce internal systems and process improvements at Jag, Inc.

Jag, Inc. has already migrated from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps for Business Communications. It is also in the process of implementing a new Content Management System [CMS] website, social media strategy, and Customer Relationship Management [CRM] system to improve both sales and customer service. Todd will manage the business development process and oversee the day to day operations of these systems and their processes which drive business development at Jag, Inc.

Expand the existing product lines of both companies.

Jag, Inc. is already one of the top providers of outdoor, indoor and commercial signs in the State of Wisconsin — President Jane Sweasy is a respected member of the Wisconsin Family Business Forum and the Northeast Wisconsin business community. e1evation, llc is a Google Authorized Solutions Provider, a CMS Website developer, a social media marketer, and a Charter Business representative — owner Todd Lohenry is also a public speaker and teaches the social media certification course at NWTC.

Together e1evation, llc and Jag, Inc. offer a full range of cost effective options that will work together to generate leads for our customers ‘here, there and everywhere’. Moving forward, billing and administration will be handled through Jag, Inc. – please contact Todd Lohenry regarding any transitional business issues…

About Jag, Inc.

“Jag billboards and commercial signs have been getting companies and their products noticed since 1946. As a family-owned business, Jag Outdoor Advertising prides itself on going above and beyond when delivering customer service, ensuring that every Jag customer achieves optimum results while earning a lifetime friend.”

About e1evation, llc

“e1evation, llc [pronounced elevation] is an international consulting firm that helps businesses, non-profits and academic institutions with marketing, sales and technology solutions.”

For Jag, Inc.:
Jane Sweasy, President
Jag, Inc.
1508 Sunset Avenue
Algoma, WI 54201
http://jagoutdoor.com
jsweasy@jagoutdoor.com
(920) 487-3443

For e1evation, llc:
Todd Lohenry, Owner
e1evation, llc
305 Steele St., Suite 27
Algoma, WI 54201
http://elevation.company
(920) 710-0790
todd@e1evation.com
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Garry Tan has announced that he is leaving Posterous, the ultra-simplistic microblogging company he helped found in 2008. Tan wrote on his blog today that it was time to move on and that he would be taking an advisory role with the company in order to do what he was most passionate about – work with startups.

“My greatest passions lie with the early stage of building world-changing consumer products,” writes Tan. “To that end, I’ve decided to join the team at Y Combinator as a designer-in-residence and help the dozens of top pre-seed startups in the newest Winter 2011 batch reach their potential through excellent user experience.”

Ruh roh! What does this mean for Posterous? I have been having concerns about the platform for a month or two due to lagging tech support responses and what I interpret as a lack of focus with Posterous groups and now this? Still, Posterous is the best tool in the universe for curating content and autoposting to my WordPress blogs — better than ‘press this’ which really stinks, imho. What now? In the words of the great philosophers .38 Special, “Hold on loosely, but don’t let go. If you cling too tightly, you’re gonna lose your soul”…

How to Setup a Facebook Page for your Business, Organization or Church

I’m doing a training session next week at NWTC on ‘Facebook for Fun and Profit’. Unfortunately, it’s all filled up — for those of you interested in the topic that won’t be able to make it, this may help…

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

Turn Your Expertise Into Dollars Online

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Small business owners possess a wealth of knowledge about their industry or sector, and when they share this knowledge with Internet (Internet) searchers, it lends credibility to their business and attracts new customers. Blogging is a key medium for sharing your expertise. The most recent Merchant Confidence Index, a survey of 10,000 small business owners conducted by my company found that nearly 30% are blogging and 35% plan to blog in the next three months. Those who are blogging have found that creating impactful content that people can find online is one of the best marketing tools available — and it’s free. According to data published by Internet marketing firm HubSpot, companies that blogged realized 55% more visitors to their site, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages.

Michele Gorham, owner of the Andover, Mass.-based Cookie Central bakery, is one small business owner who has turned her expertise into dollars online. She has created hundreds of blog entries about how to build a business, run a bakery, and other helpful topics; and she continuously answers customers’ direct questions through various social media platforms, including Facebook (Facebook), Twitter (Twitter) and Yelp (Yelp). Because of Gorham’s rich content contributions, her listings on various sites are highly trafficked and regularly found by search engines — generating more sales for her business.

If you’re as interested in thought leadership marketing, you’ll want to follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article…

5 Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Outstanding

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Are your blog posts just “okay”? Want to make them great? If so, keep reading.

A great blog post respects the needs of three distinct entities. It educates and informs your audience (your subscribers and visitors), optimizes for the search engines and sufficiently energizes you so that you do a good job creating it.

Every blog post should address the following five components to ensure it hits the mark for your audience, the search engines and you.

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to dig a little deeper…

Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust [?!]

Image representing Posterous as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase

Rising social media rockstar Kelly Neuville of Envano sent me an article from ReadWriteWeb [you can follow the ‘via’ link below the graph to the source and read the rest of the article if you’re interested] that would seem to suggest at first glance that I should abandon my love of the Posterous platform in favor of my first interest in this space, Tumblr. If I apply logic like this at every level in my life, I would learn a lesson from the flies on my farm and favor a steady diet of cow manure — after all, the sheer volume of their vote would indicate that manure is clearly a better food product, right? :-D

Now I’m not saying that Kelly was wrong to send me the article or that Tumblr = cow manure, although it would appear my analogy is heading in that direction. What I am saying is that there will always be a reason why the masses favor one product over another and it may have nothing to do with elegance or technological superiority. I posted the same data from a different perspective yesterday here; the article postulates that ‘The growth in Tumblr’s visitors probably has something to do with its popularity among celebs.’ and says ‘Earlier this week John Mayer made waves this week by shutting down his Twitter account, where he had 3.7 million followers, and switching to Tumblr full time.’ If that’s the case, then Tumblr has an ‘unfair advantage’ — it’s becoming the destination of choice for the MySpace crowd. My response? Meh

Laura Ingraham was right — entertainers should shut up and sing. What I want to know is what are the thought leaders using? I was really impressed with Tumblr until I saw that Guy Kawasaki picked Posterous for his Holy Kaw! blog and then I wondered “what did I miss”?! And what about social media rockstar Steve Rubel? And what about me? Seriously, Posterous rocks at the two most important things I could expect any blogging tool to do; ingest almost any content for creation and curation effortlessly and autopost as part of my homebase and outpost strategy. I use Posterous as the foundation of my ‘e1evation workflow‘ and it made me one of the top thought leaders in my industry on the internet rapidly elevating my site to within the top 40k of all websites in the US in 3 months. I will and I have put my humble Posterous blogs up against the best and they’ve held their ground — believe me when I say I have no fear of Katy Perry on Tumblr…

Make the switch to Posterous [+ WordPress]

A couple of weeks ago, the brilliant guys at Posterous started an even more brilliant marketing campaign to tout the efficacy of their Posterous platform against other blogging tools. They culminated their campaign with a post on the ‘Top 5 reasons to switch from WordPress to Posterous’ by saying…

“We’d be crazy to declare war on WordPress. It’s the most popular blog platform in the world — gazillions of bloggers have custom WP installations with plugin functionality that Posterous won’t touch anytime soon.

But WordPress isn’t for everyone, a fact supported by the thousands of WordPress users who have switched to Posterous in the last two weeks. So we thought we’d let some of them tell you why they switched.” Source: Top 5 reasons to switch from WordPress to Posterous – The Official Posterous Posterous

I encourage you to follow the link and read the 5 reasons. They conclude by saying…

“We’ve made it easy for you to make up your own mind by making the move from WordPress to Posterous hassle-free. We’ll copy over your blog content, URL slugs, comments and tags. Just go to posterous.com/switch/wordpress and enter in the url of your blog and email address.

We’ll take it from there. You don’t even need to set up a Posterous account. We’ll email you when we’re done copying your blog. And don’t worry, your WordPress blog will still be there.” Source: Top 5 reasons to switch from WordPress to Posterous – The Official Posterous Posterous

Here’s where I’ll add my two cents — which I think is actually worth quite a bit more! While I have used Posterous alone to take down website competition with much bigger staffs and budgets, the point I’d like to make here is that the answer in business is rarely either/or — many times it’s both/and. IMHO, WordPress still reigns supreme when it comes to the ability to theme a site and leverage plugins — they said it themselves: “custom WP installations with plugin functionality that Posterous won’t touch anytime soon” but Posterous handles some of the more difficult WordPress tasks automagically. So, why not use BOTH?! Posterous can automatically post to over 25 different internet platforms so I post to my Posterous blog and then autopost to my WordPress site. That way, I can leverage the 5 reasons to switch while still using my powerful WordPress site with the theme, the plugins and the seo that I’ve come to love AND generate valuable seo links from my Posterous blog to my WordPress blog as well. As you can see below, it’s working like crazy…

My ‘e1evation workflow’ leverages the simplicity of Posterous and the publishing power of WordPress in one, easy to use approach. I used this workflow for the 2nd quarter of this year and my traffic increased 590%. What’s even better is that thanks to Posterous, it’s drop dead simple to teach. Comment, call or use the contact form to discuss how we can apply the ‘e1evation workflow’ to your business…

The ‘e1evation workflow’ continues to deliver!

In my effort to develop a powerfully simple workflow for my clients, I came up with something so elegant that I had to use it myself. Here are the results after 1 quarter of use…

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