Tag: WordPress

Audio Post on ‘Healthy Anticipation’

Here’s what I’m thinking: 

Also, here’s a related post that you might enjoy; http://toddlohenry.com/2012/05/13/codepedence-is-not-just-an-issue-for-partners-of-addicts/

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25 Blogging Tips for Newbies and Veterans

Goins, Writer via 25 Blogging Tips for Newbies and Veterans.

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Something interesting happened this week…

Image representing Alexa as depicted in CrunchBase

For the first time in my 7 years of blogging, my personal blog [this one] has a higher Alexa ranking and is getting more traffic than my business blog. A couple of datapoints…

You can read more about the different version of WordPress here. My conclusion? WordPress.com is a very powerful and viable platform for ‘thought leadership‘ marketing. Why mess with the hosted version unless you really need a feature that WordPress.com doesn’t offer? WordPress is “good, fast, and cheap”…

Continue reading “Something interesting happened this week…” →

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In Monday’s epic post I mentioned the UM Dartmouth study on the death of blogging. Here’s the response I should have written if I were as smart as Gini Dietrich of Spin Sucks…

When I speak to CEO organizations, I typically run through a series of quick slides that show where technology is right at this moment.

For instance: There were 107 trillion emails sent last year, Facebook is at more than 900 million users, Pinterest is closing in on 15 million users, and there are three billion videos streamed on YouTube every day.

I do this to show how many people are using the web, to preempt the “My customer doesn’t use the Internet” conversation (yes, I still hear that).

But the stat I want to talk about today is the number of blogs on the Internet. According to Technorati, there are 158 million blogs floating around, which is partly why I’m so surprised to keep reading that blogging is dead.

I get it. It’s not an easy think to keep up. My guess is many people or companies say, “Let’s start a blog!” and then do nothing with it after a month or two because it’s so labor intense.

So, let’s say for argument’s sake, half of those blogs never see the light of day, either because they’re abandoned or no one reads them because they’re too self-promotional. That leaves us with 79 million blogs, which isn’t a small number.

USA Today reported this morning that more companies are abandoning their blogs in favor of Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Add to that, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth released a  study earlier this year that says the percentage of companies that maintain blogs fell to 37% in 2011 from 50% in 2010, based on its survey of 500 fast-growing companies listed by Inc. magazine. Only 23% of Fortune 500 companies maintained a blog in 2011, flat from a year ago after rising for several years.

So, I see. Based on Wall Street and fast-growth companies, blogging is down, and now it’s time to claim the whole blogosphere is dead.

Here’s the thing, though. Those companies aren’t blogging because it’s hard. It’s hard to generate good content even once a week. It’s hard to cultivate a community. It’s hard to grow traffic. It’s a thankless job most days. So people throw something up there that talks about how great the company is, if only to check off “blog today” from their check list.

And the blog fails.” Full story at:  Is Blogging Dead or Are Companies Not Trying Hard Enough? | Spin Sucks

Go to the source if you want the rest of Gini’s perspective…

Thanks, Gini, for connecting the dots in a way that makes sense. Me? I always tell my clients that blogging is one of those things that takes more time than money and the organic Search Engine Optimization [SEO] is better than paying for Search Engine Marketing [SEM]. Gini, however, did a much better job deconstructing the UM Dartmouth study…

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Some people like to make things overly complicated. Me? Sometimes I like to grossly oversimplify things and take them back to the basics. Example? ‘Thought leadership’ marketing. To my mind, if you want to be a thought leader there are only two things you need to do well:

  • Deepen your expertise through a continuous learning program
  • Document your expertise through blogging and social networks

Everything else is just details…

When it comes to effective business development, or marketing and sales again, I think there are only two activities you need to master:

  • Generating leads
  • Managing leads

Again, everything else is just details…

Whether you are a freelancer or running a large enterprise I believe there are 7 databases you must manage effectively to succeed. They are:

That’s all there is to it! If you can effectively manage these 7 databases you can go from reacting to your market to dominating your market.

Questions? Feedback? I’d be happy to expand/expound on any of these topics…

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How To Easily Include Images In Your Posts…

The logo of the blogging software WordPress. D...

I coach a lot of people on how to use WordPress effectively for ‘thought leadership’ marketing. One of the most important things to include in every post is a relevant picture. Why?

Go to the source: How to easily include images in your posts… | e1evation.

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I coach a lot of people on how to use WordPress effectively for ‘thought leadership’ marketing. One of the most important things to include in every post is a relevant picture. Why? HubSpot says:

If you’ve ever read a book with a child, you probably know they find pictures more interesting than words; but are adults really that different? I wouldn’t be surprised (or offended!) if you found yourself gravitating more towards the picture in this post than the copy. But images drive more than just attention — they drive engagement. In fact, just one month after introducing timeline for brands, Simply Measured reports that engagement is up 46% percent per post, and visual content (photos and videos) have seen a 65% increase in engagement.

via Why Marketers Should Invest in Visual Content Creation.

Effectively using images in a blog post is an issue however, that separates blogger sheep from goats. In this screencast I focus on a couple of ways bloggers can easily get images into their posts with an emphasis on my favorite blogging tool, Zemanta for both WordPress.com and hosted WordPress…

[View the story “Other ‘images in posts’ screencasts” on Storify]

Other ‘images in posts’ screencasts

Storified by Todd Lohenry · Mon, Apr 16 2012 12:10:24

I love Zemanta!toddlohenry
How I used Zemanta on this posttoddlohenry
Google Reader and Zemantatoddlohenry
Blogging with Internet Explorer and Windows Live Writertoddlohenry
Windows Live Writertoddlohenry
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I’ve officially told over 100 stories with Storify so I guess you can say that I officially love it! Thanks to the guys at Storify — especially Burt and Jeff — who make and support such a great technology. I think the future of blogging looks a lot like Storify…

Here are some of my best Storify screencasts in one handy playlist…

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The first commandment of social media is ‘share, share, share’. A blog should be designed in such a way as to facilitate that sharing, both for the author AND the reader. Here are some practical tips on how I use sharing from my blog to drive traffic and engagement…

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This one goes out to all the WordPress.com bloggers

…that are using their blogs for content marketing and ‘thought leadership‘ marketing:

Here are some of the big takeaways:

  • Use Windows Live Writer or [MarsEdit if you’re a Maccie] to curate good content…
  • Use Zemanta to find related pictures, articles and metadata tags to engage readers…
  • Spend the money to get your own domain and apply it to your site…
  • Use the sharing feature to automatically post your new content to your Facebook profile or page, Twitter, etc.
  • Don’t forget the sharing buttons on every post and page if you want people to disseminate your content…
  • Put Twitter and Facebook widgets in your sidebar if you are using those tools [and you should be!]…
Ooops! Forgot to cover this;


Questions? Feedback? Comment below or connect above…

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I’m a big fan of effective curation for content marketing and ‘thought leadership’. My preferred platform is Windows 7 these days, but many of my clients prefer MacOS. I put together a little riff yesterday outlining how use 3 tools to effectively curate content on the Mac. In this screencast I cover…

Enjoy!

Questions? Feedback?

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Dana VanDen Heuvel, 'thought leadership' marketing…or how to be a thought leader in your industry without breaking the bank! Prepare yourself — I’ve been thinking about this one all weekend…

I had a chance to have lunch last week with Dana VanDen Heuvel, an internationally known ‘thought leadership‘ marketing expert who happens to live in nearby Green Bay. Dana and I travel in similar circles although his focus is more on strategy while mine is more on the mechanics of thought leadership marketing. Back in November I was trying to get my mind around content marketing and thought leadership and I asked Dana whether or not the two were synonymous. Either he didn’t have time to answer my question or you wanted me to figure it out on my own; in either case eventually I concluded that content marketing is a means toward thought leadership but the two are not the same. You can use content marketing to create share of voice on the internet but it’s the quality of your ideas that determine whether or not you ultimately become a leader by getting share of mind and share of market.

To me, thought leadership is the process of becoming and being known as the expert. In my oversimplified view of things that requires two activities; you have to deepen your expertise and detail your expertise or, get smarter and show people you’re getting smarter. IF you do that well they may actually follow your ideas…

Are you a wannabe thought leader? You can test the waters in this area for $17 per year using WordPress.com as your thought leadership marketing hub. The $17 will buy you a domain and the ability to map that domain to your free WordPress site. Then, all you gotta do is publish something…

Deepening your expertise

In in order to deepen your expertise I think there are three things you need to do

  • Use Gmail to manage your just-in-time information
  • Use Google reader to manager just-in-case information
  • Use Gist to track other thought leaders

Detailing your expertise

In order to demonstrate to people that you are an expert

  • Either create or curate your ideas in WordPress.com
  • Share the content you create or curate on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Paper.li, Twylah and MailChimp
  • Engage in conversations using HootSuite and/or NutshellMail

David Kanigan of davidkanigan.com is an example of someone who had done exactly what I recommended on his WordPress.com blog…

New to blogging — only 6 months in — and he is already rocking his site! His Alexa rank is currently 61,500 in the US — testimony to both the power of WordPress.com and his frequent posting [too bad that due to his work in the financial industry he can’t engage in business blogging]…

You could be a David, too, and take on the Goliath’s in your industry using the tools and tactics I mentioned above. Here are links to every tool and a few more…

<script src="

imho, here are the best tools for content management and marketing for thought leadership. All free, all cross platform…

imho, here are the best tools for content management and marketing for thought leadership. All free, all cross platform…

http://storify.com/e1evation/content-management-and-marketing-for-thought-leade.js”>%5B<a href="

imho, here are the best tools for content management and marketing for thought leadership. All free, all cross platform…

imho, here are the best tools for content management and marketing for thought leadership. All free, all cross platform…

http://storify.com/e1evation/content-management-and-marketing-for-thought-leade&#8221; target=”_blank”>View the story “Content management and marketing for thought leadership tools” on Storify]

Here is the way in which I use them…

'thought leadership' marketing, e1evation, llc
Click image to enlarge...

Now, either you look at this and say “Ah, that makes perfect sense — why didn’t I think of that before?” for you look at this and say “What a fustercluck!?!?!?” In either case, I may be a resource for you. Either I can help you simplify your existing thought leadership marketing workflow or I can set it all up for you and teach you how to run it. It’s your call, but if you’re looking to establish a thought leadership position you have just run out of excuses…

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Image representing Gist as depicted in CrunchBase

I had an interesting opportunity to sit on a panel of ‘experts’ yesterday and advise website development students on how they should develop a portfolio of their work and present it to prospective hiring authorities or clients. To be honest, I don’t know how I got on the panel; the others were truly experts — I’m just a lowly WordPress developer who creates websites out of necessity because of their role in ‘thought leadership’ marketing…

As I thought about it in hindsight there’s an important piece of advice that I left out but it’s a good one for all of us. When it comes to displaying a ‘portfolio’ [btw, to me a blog is a kind of a portfolio of thoughts so bear with me] of your life’s work I think there are only two activities that matter:

  • Deepening your understanding of your craft [or continuous ongoing education]
  • Letting people know you have deepened your understanding of your craft

I think all of ‘thought leadership’ marketing can be summed up in this statement: become and be known as the expert.

In order to do this you need a system that will help you effectively manage the content you need to master in order to become an actual expert. I wrote just last week about the tools I use to accomplish this. They are:

As it applies to this particular topic, the two most important tools in this process are Google Reader and Gist. Google Reader allows me to create a virtual newspaper of the sites and searches that I need to track in order to stay on top of my craft — my areas of ‘subject matter expertise’. Gist is like Google Reader but for people and companies. In an easy to use dashboard I can see everything that someone has produced on the internet for the past 24 hours so I never miss a thing that someone who is important to me has said. The two go together like peanut butter and chocolate to help me become more of an expert…

Getting smarter is only half the battle — letting the world know you have gotten smarter is the other part. Blogging and social media are perfect for this! As Chris Brogan said in Trust Agents “As you now know, if you have no Google results, in a sense you don’t exist.” Active blogging on your area of expertise is a great way to let the world know you are an expert. Does it work? Well, are you reading this? Sharing your ideas in a public forum like the internet gets you a share of the voice which may get you share of mind if your ideas are good enough and may eventually lead to share of market. My tools of choice for getting found are:

  • WordPress
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Google+

The order here is intentional and they tools are stack ranked in order of priority. Master one and move on to the next.I’ve written often about homebases and outposts — blogging should be the first priority because it is OWNED media — everything else should be evaluated based on the audience you’re trying to reach. Here in Northeast Wisconsin, LinkedIn rules — things might be different in your world…

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English: The logo of the blogging software Wor...

http://storify.com/e1evation/this-week-in-blogging-at-e1evation

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Google Talk

Google. Sigh…

By now, most people have heard that the Google motto is ‘don’t be evil‘. Current trends in social media indicate that many are wondering whether or not Google has forgotten that mantra and took a left turn somewhere in 2011. Even I, the Google fan boy that I am, must admit that some of Google’s recent changes — like the ones made to Google Reader on November 1, 2011 — have left a sour taste in my mouth…

Still, as a social media instructor at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, I fought hard to have a Google class added to the social media curriculum. Why? The value of Google’s ‘free’ tools is so great that I think it’s foolish NOT to use them despite the hidden cost. All of life is about trade-offs and compromises. Although I may have sold my soul to Google long ago, my students still have a choice…

I firmly believe that Google has two of the three most powerful tools for the collection phase of content management; Gmail and Google Reader. I firmly believe I would not be who I am doing what I am doing without those two tools. Gmail allows me to effectively handle my ‘just in time’ content while Google Reader helps me handle my ‘just in case’ content. They go together like peanut butter and chocolate to help me manage the content I need to be a thought leader in my space…

Per usual, here’s a collection of the best Google articles I’ve found this past week. Enjoy!!!

http://storify.com/e1evation/this-week-in-google-at-e1evation

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SoundCloud

This morning I had to travel 225 miles from Warrenville, IL to Algoma, WI at 5 in the morning. Needless to say it cut into my blogging time. I thought I’d use it as an opportunity to test SoundCloud for audio blogging. This was dictated to SoundCloud on my Google Nexus S while driving in the Chicago suburbs. Let me know what you think about the content and the format…

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WordPress logo blue
Image via Wikipedia

Blogging is fundamental to an effective content marketing campaign. In my humble opinion no other tool is more effective in driving people to your thought leadership position. Why?

  • Blogs are easy to update and can contain a wide variety of content
  • It is easy to optimize their content for Search Engine Optimization [SEO]
  • Most blogging platforms are open source [i.e., FREE]

When you consider that 2012 is the ‘year of content content marketing’ and that you can add a blog to your website for free, my question to you is what’s holding you back?

I see three reasons why people hold back…

  • Perception
  • Fear
  • Time

I think the answer for most people is simple. The words blogging and blogger bring up images of 40 year old white guys sitting in their pajamas in their parents’ basement spewing out politcal rants. While that demographic has clearly capitalized on the benefits of blogging, it doesn’t take away anything from the power of blogging for content marketing.

Here’s another one:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/e1evation/status/166135819520843776″%5D

I wouldn’t be too concerned about that one either. You or your brand can become a thought leader in your space if you engage in a content management and content marketing campaign tailor made to demonstrate your expertise.

Blogging, on one level, isn’t much different than writing an ’email to the world’ — from that perspective, most people or organizations are already producing more than enough content to feed an interesting blog.

Comment or use the ‘connect’ form so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization. In the meantime, here are the best articles I found on blogs and blogging this past week. Enjoy!

<script src="

Good stuff I read this week…

Good stuff I read this week…

Good stuff I read this week…

Good stuff I read this week…

http://storify.com/e1evation/blogging-trends-for-2-5-2012.js”>%5B<a href="

Good stuff I read this week…

Good stuff I read this week…

Good stuff I read this week…

Good stuff I read this week…

http://storify.com/e1evation/blogging-trends-for-2-5-2012&#8243; target=”_blank”>View the story “Blogging trends for 2/5/2012” on Storify]

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Image representing Joost de Valk as depicted i...
Joost de Valk of Yoast

Content marketing — posting relevant content to this blog — is the way I have done Search Engine Optimization [SEO] in the past. Thanks to my Search Engine Optimization [SEO] bff Ronnie Binser of Video Leads Online, I’m now focusing on doing Search Engine Optimization [SEO] ‘on purpose’ instead of by accident…

For a long time, I have depended on WordPress to do my Search Engine Optimization [SEO] organically without a lot of intentional effort on my part. Most bloggers know that WordPress has an excellent reputation for naturally producing great Search Engine Optimization [SEO] results. At the beginning of the year, however, I decided to become much more intentional about my brand online and decide what topics I really wanted to dominate online and go after them intentionally. That’s where Ronnie stepped in…

Ronnie helped me see how I could use keywords intentionally in my writing. He also gave me some insights into Panda — Google’s search engine algorithm — that really helped me get a grip on Search Engine Optimization [SEO] for content marketing.

Don’t get me wrong — WordPress is great — but in order to do Search Engine Optimization [SEO] on purpose instead of by accident, it needs some help. I found that WordPress is great, but if I want my content marketing to be effective and get me found for the things I want to be found for [wow, that was a tortured phrase] I’ve got to be more intentional.

Sooo. Here’s what I’m working on now…

  • Learning from a smart guy like Ronnie who knows Search Engine Optimization [SEO] cold
  • Using a plugin like InboundWriter that forces me to align my WordPress writing with my Search Engine Optimization [SEO] objectives
  • Evaluating a Search Engine Optimization [SEO] plugin like Yoast that will rock my Search Engine Optimization [SEO] and take it to the next level

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert in this area — I’m just a ‘seeker’ — but I’m happy to share the good stuff I found this week via Storify…

<script src="

Saturdays are about Search Engine Optimization [SEO] at e1evation, llc

Saturdays are about Search Engine Optimization [SEO] at e1evation, llc

http://storify.com/e1evation/search-engine-optimization-seo-trends-for-this-wee.js”>%5B<a href="

Saturdays are about Search Engine Optimization [SEO] at e1evation, llc

Saturdays are about Search Engine Optimization [SEO] at e1evation, llc

http://storify.com/e1evation/search-engine-optimization-seo-trends-for-this-wee&#8221; target=”_blank”>View the story “Search Engine Optimization [SEO] trends for this week 2/4/2012” on Storify]

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WordPress logo blue
Image via Wikipedia

Sundays are all about blogging here at e1evation. My fundamental belief is that blogging is foundational for content marketing success and that a blog should be at the center of everything you do online. Why? Here are a couple of reasons that come to mind at the moment…

  • You own your blog. You do not own Facebook. You wouldn’t build your dream home on rented land — why build your brand on something you don’t own and control?
  • Blogs give you more control over how you express yourself.
  • Websites that blog actively get 7x more traffic than static sites.

It would seem that big brands are starting to get the picture…

The big three social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, were the most widely used in 2011, followed by YouTube, and publishing a blog. Across the various platforms, brands cited the following adoption levels: Facebook (87%), Twitter (83%), LinkedIn (76%), YouTube (66%), and blogs (57%). In 2012, blogs are expected to gain the most ground: An additional 28% of brands that don’t currently publish a blog plan to do so in 2012—bringing the percentage of brands that publish a blog to 85%. Social Media – Blogs Top List of Social Media Investments for 2012 : MarketingProfs Article

To my mind, blogging is the ultimate ‘content marketing for thought leadership’ tool. Maybe it’s time you took a page from their playbook and started business blogging as well?! Contact me if you’re not sure where to start…

Here are some of the best blogging articles I found this week…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

Sundays are all about blogging…

http://storify.com/e1evation/trending-topics-for-1-29-2012

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