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…

July 15, 2010 0

Blogging is the answer. Now, what is the question?

My business website is one of the most visited sites in Wisconsin, outranking websites with much bigger brands, more popular products, and bigger marketing staffs. How do I do it all by myself? The short answer is that I blog. The longer answer is that I have a documented workflow that anyone can use to drive traffic to their website and value proposition and it’s driven by email and bookmarking – two skills that almost everyone has mastered in this new millennium…

Now I don’t know a whole lot about search engine optimization or SEO – if that’s what you’re after, you want to call my friends at Envano. I do know however, that if you use the right tools and process, there’s a natural SEO that occurs through frequent posting. That ‘right tool’ is a blog…

“B2B blogging experts understand that a blog is a lead generation machine. This blog generates more traffic than our main company website. Each month, tens of thousands of people find this blog through search engines and social media websites, and thousands of them like the content enough to take the next step and respond to one of our offers and become a lead.

Some B2B bloggers think a business blog is just about thought leadership. Yes, B2B blogging is great for thought leadership and brand building. But, with this blog we get all the benefits of thought leadership, and also get lots of leads. By maximizing the lead generation potential of your B2B blog, you can have your cake (thought leadership) and eat it too (leads).” Source: How to Turn a Blog into a B2B Lead Generation Machine

There are options to consider whether you have a website or not. The first situation may actually be easier to resolve, depending on how much you want your new blog to resemble your existing website. I used to be a real stickler on this, but as time has gone on, I’ve become less concerned about matching the exact look and feel of the site [just know there are options for you regardless of your perspective] and more concerned about just driving traffic.

It’s an easy thing for me to add a blog to an existing site that will drive traffic using my ‘e1evation workflow’. From a design perspective, it’s much easier to just start from scratch using WordPress – a blogging platform that offers blogs that are already integrated with websites – but starting from scratch begs the issue of how you will populate the other pages on your site with information about your brand and products…

The bottom line is that whether you have an existing website or not, there are a couple of “good, fast, and cheap” solutions that are available to you. If you’re trying to figure out how you can add blogging and social media to your already overflowing plate and still get home for supper, comment, call or contact me — I’d love to show you how…

June 12, 2010 0

Ummm. Helloooooo!?

This is why they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The Oatmeal has communicated volumes about how the world perceives your email with one image:

You can move to the top with one simple tool: Google Apps! Google Apps allows you to attach Gmail and other powerful business apps to your internet domain in about 10 minutes…

Use it if you don’t want the world to think you’re a Yahoo!

June 1, 2010 0

“practical, tactical social media”

http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=practicaltacticalsocialmedia-100527084139-phpapp02&stripped_title=practical-tactical-social-media-20

View more presentations from e1evation, llc.

May 27, 2010 0

I can’t say enough about Gist

Seriously! I’ve posted on Gist over a dozen times in the past few months — it’s that good! Remember this? I called Gist the ‘cherry on top of my social media Sundae’ back in February. The screencast features my ‘holy trinity’ of morning news aggregation; Google Reader, Feedly and Gist — Gist starts at about 5:25 [although the whole screencast is worth a reprise]…

Yesterday, I received notice that Gist was now available for another of my favorite tools, Google Apps! Here’s a quick overview…

All the Gist info I used to go to the website for is now available per contact at the bottom of every email adding ‘people power’ to every email I receive. I’ll still use the Gist dashboard every morning to see what my powerful network is up to, but this new Google Apps functionality is the bee’s knees…

btw, if you’re still stuck on Outlook, there’s been a Gist plugin for that too! Go to Gist.com and sign up NOW!

May 19, 2010 2

I Tweet Therefore I Am

The fascination with Twitter has less to do with the number of users and everything to do with the ability to observe and study a notable online community of passionate short-form content creators and consumers. This is of course, not just any online community. Twitter is quickly becoming the lens into all that moves us as individuals and also as a global society.

Twitter’s simplicity is part of its brilliance. The ability to interpret, analyze and in turn, predict behavior, currently sets it apart from most other social networks. Twitter has become a human seismograph, measuring and broadcasting the pulse of not just the Web, but also world and local events. News no longer breaks, it Tweets. And if you’re plugged-in to the human seismograph, you are part of a movement, one that defines trends and distributes information before the rest of the reverberations are felt across the rest of the world. You become part of the new information system.

In many ways, Twitter’s openness creates a new genre of digital anthropologists, sociologists and ethnographers. Twitter users reveal the state of all things captivating attention and inspiring action, all in real-time. As new found social scientists, we learn everything. Most notably, we can pinpoint how Twitter, as well as Facebook, is transforming popular culture and the behavior that defines it.

via briansolis.com

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

May 14, 2010 0

Easy Posting for Blogging Experts and First Timers Alike

I´m pleased to share with ThePRLawyer audience another amazing tool for public relations and marketing professionals called posterous.com. This website is designed for just about anyone to post music, videos, pictures and content on the Internet just by sending an email. There are options for first-time bloggers with simple instructions to get started and more advanced options for seasoned blogging experts.

Getting started is easy, sign up by sending an introductory email to posterous@posterous.com with the option to attach files like photos or videos and voilá! The reply is almost instant and you are set up with your very own part of the information superhighway. A variety of platforms (up to 30!) such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and/or Picasa can be integrated with your posterous. Once set up, you control where your information is going to be posted. It´s just that quick and easy.

Duct Tape Marketing´s John Jantsch explains the benefits for users by pointing out that “for many people, particularly those that rely on email as their primary communication and storage tool, this is a great way to create and curate content.” Jantsch also points out that posterous can be used as a hub for distribution with easy options to pick and choose what information to post and which platform it will be sent to.