I know it's been a long time in the making, but here is the Q&A that we didn't get to from the TypePad Webinar - Small Business Blogging 101, a few weeks back. Our guest Michael Sippey the VP and General Manager of TypePad was kind enough to answer many of the questions below. Happy reading it's a long one!
Q. Would a blog be a better substitute for this? I edit a quarterly national newsletter, the Planning Commissioners Journal. Over the past 10 years, we've emailed draft articles submitted to us for publication to about 700 people who have signed up.
Janine: I think a blog is perfect for you especially if you want to encourage comments from your readers. We’ve replaced our own newsletter and send just a “teaser” from our blog posts in an email to our recipients letting them know the blog has been updated. It’s worked out great!
Q. Why should I use TypePad instead of wordpress.org that is free?
Michael: One of the key differences between TypePad and free services is the customer support that we provide. Our support reps answer questions seven days a week, year round, and help our customers with questions about how to set up their blog and make the most of their TypePad account. TypePad also has a world-class feature set that you won’t find on free services, including the ability to place third party content (like the Vertical Response Opt-In Widget) on your blog.
Q. Can you talk more on how to submit blog to search engines?
Michael: Sure! It’s actually simple with TypePad: Six Apart publishes the “Six Apart Update Stream” which automatically sends your blog posts to the major blog search engines, including Google and Technorati. This ensures that those engines index your posts. Additionally, you can have your blog automatically send updates to services from Yahoo and FeedBurner, which in turn are used by other search engines to learn about new blog posts. And this is all in addition to the normal crawling that Google and other search engines will do of your site and your blog.
Q. Assuming 2 to 3 simple posts a week, what is the average time investment?
Janine: I’m doing about that many, but some of those aren’t necessarily “simple”. I invest about a few hours a week in doing them. If it’s just a 10-liner rant or piece of info, you’ll spend a lot less time.
Q. Can I add RSS as part of the blog?
Michael: Absolutely. By default, TypePad will publish RSS feeds of your blog, and even automatically create an iTunes compatible podcast feed if you include an audio file in your post. Additionally, TypePad integrates with third party feed publishing service FeedBurner, which can give you statistics on the readership of your feed, as well as help you insert advertising and provide other value added services for your RSS feed.
TypePad also includes a feature that lets you display headlines from other RSS feeds on the sidebar of your blog. Customers today use this to show off headlines from their favorite news services, or even from another one of their own blogs.
Q. Can you explain the different account levels of TypePad?
Michael: Basic is a great way to get started with TypePad. For $4.95 a month you get a Six Apart-hosted blog with access to our professionally designed templates and themes, full access to TypePad Widgets (including the Vertical Response Opt-in form Widget), and customer support.
The Plus level ($8.95 per month) gives you all of that plus the ability to host up to three blogs on your TypePad account, and the ability to customize your blog’s design with your own banner image and preferences for colors, fonts, borders, etc., all without needing to know a single bit of HTML.
A Pro account ($14.95 per month) gives you everything at the Plus level, plus the ability to host a virtually unlimited number of blogs, as well as have multiple contributors (or “guest authors”) on your blogs. Additionally, you can use TypePad’s “Advanced Template” language (similar to HTML) to get pixel level control over your blog’s look and feel.
Q: If my URL is registered with GoDaddy, how do I point that to my TypePad blog?
Michael: At the Plus and Pro levels, you can use our “domain mapping” feature to have your domain point to your TypePad blog, for a seamless experience for your customers. Many of our customers use GoDaddy, and have a domain like “blog.company.com” pointed to their TypePad blog.
You can learn all about our domain mapping feature by visiting our searchable Knowledge Base at and searching for “domain mapping.”
Q: Can you provide links on your blog for Affiliate Sales...i.e. links to Amazon?
Michael: Absolutely. In fact, one of the key differences between TypePad and some free hosted services is that we don’t put any restrictions on the type of content you put on your blog. We have customers that use Amazon affiliate links and the aStore feature of Amazon to host entire shopping experiences on their TypePad blogs. And thousands of our customers have discovered other ways to make money from their blogs, whether it’s online advertising from Google, Tip Jars from PayPal or affiliate programs from some of TypePad’s Widget partners.
Q: Do your products support Mac users?
Michael: Yes. TypePad is an entirely web-based service, which means there’s no complicated software to download or install. You can use TypePad with Safari on the Mac, though we recommend Firefox for the best user experience.
Janine: I use a Mac with TypePad for the VerticalResponse blog on Firefox.
Q. Can you talk more about the marketing of your blog and VR?
Janine: First of all our TypePad Opt-in form Widget is pretty slick. You take about 5 minutes creating your form in VerticalResponse and at the end we ask you if you want to export your Opt-in form to your TypePad Blog. You’re prompted to log into your TypePad account and then you’ll simply click a link and your opt-in form will instantly appear on your blog. Anyone who signs up using the form will automatically go into your VerticalResponse account for you to email to.
Q. What do small business bloggers do about privacy-related issues, copyright etc., particularly if anyone is allowed to respond to a post?
Michael: I assume you’re talking about issues with visitors including content in comments that they don’t have the rights to post… Generally we don’t see a lot of that type of infringing activity on TypePad blogs (especially from commenters), but TypePad’s tools make it easy to either (a) require a comment be approved by you before it appears on your blog, or (b) quickly remove it from your blog after the fact.
Q. Doesn't the e-Fax example highlight some of the danger of blogging? How do you suggest that companies work to help control negative information while keeping the 'actual conversation' nature of the blog intact?
Michael: Ah, yes, it does. But here’s where I think eFax fell down on the job. First, this kind of post would be a great opportunity for an eFax customer service representative to comment on and either (a) apologize for the service they gave or (b) explain just what happened and offer to make it right. Additionally, if eFax had a blog of their own I’m sure they’d be hearing about these kinds of problems directly, and wouldn’t have customers complaining about it on their own blogs. Finally, never underestimate the fundamentals: first execute on a service that people find valuable, useful and easy to use.
Q. Does it ever make sense to have your blog and your website separate -- so they can better maintain somewhat separate identities?
Janine: I believe so. The VerticalResponse blog is separate from the company site because it does have a separate identity and we want to keep it that way. However, you can get to the blog easily from the site. In addition, the tone of the blog is a bit more relaxed and “chatty” vs. the site.
Q. How do you suggest using a blog for a small financial services company?
Michael: Without knowing your specific business it’s hard to comment, but I would assume that part of what makes you a great small financial services company is your combination of expertise and customer relationships. So use your blog to highlight both! Use your blog to give away some of your expertise, to reinforce your value proposition to your existing clients, and to attract new ones. And you can also use your blog to highlight success stories of some of your clients. Tell stories about how you’ve helped them plan for their future, or earn above market returns, or how much they love coming in to the office to meet with your advisors. Tell the story of your business!
Q. How easy is it to integrate the TypePad blog page onto existing websites?
Michael: We have a good number of customers that integrate the reader experience of their blog with their website. TypePad’s domain mapping feature makes it easy to point a subdomain of your blog (like blog.company.com) to your TypePad blog, and you can use TypePad’s design features to make your blog look similar to, or just like your website.
Q. How long is the 15% discount good for?
Michael: If you use the code VRWEBINAR when you register, the discount is good for the life of your subscription!
Q. How much attention should you pay to seeding your posts with key words in titles, headings and general content?
Michael: Think of your blog title posts like subject lines in email: you want them to be relevant to what you’re writing about, and maybe even warrant a bit of attention to encourage readers to read the entire post. As for seeding your entries itself with keywords, I would instead focus on writing about what comes naturally to you, and let the “keywords” take care of themselves.
Q: I'm using my blog to generate content that will be included in a future book. Is there a way to easily export my blog content as text?
Michael: Absolutely! TypePad’s export feature lets you get your blog entries (and even comments and TrackBacks) out of the system in a plain text format that you can then import into a word processor, or even use to migrate to another blogging tool if need be. There are also new companies like Blurb who will automatically import your blog content to help you self-publish a book.
Q. How much blogging is TOO much? Can you update too often or have too many blogs within your site (if you cover different content with different blogs)?
Michael: Different blogs within your site covering different types of content can be a great way to help your readers / customers self-select the type of information they want to be reading. But be careful about getting too segmented – if you’re not committed to keeping those blogs updated, you can end up with phantom blogs that don’t have a life anymore. As for how much is too much? Think about it as a reader – how much would you want to read about your topic of interest or small business?
Q. I already use TypePad; can I get the discount if I upgrade to the Pro level?
Michael: Thanks for participating in the webinar! Email me directly and I’ll help you out.
Q. I am currently evaluating two blog platforms for a small business platform -- TypePad and SquareSpace. Would love to hear reasons why I would choose TypePad over SquareSpace? What sets you apart from them?
Michael: SquareSpace has a great product, and I’d love to hear what you think about it. At Six Apart, we focus on building great, easy to use blogging tools that can help you build a powerful blog and a professional presence online, without overwhelming you with complicated concepts. We’re proud that TypePad’s in use by business bloggers like Janine Popick, popular bloggers like Cute Overload and Celebrity Babies, and journalists/commentators like Andrew Sullivan and the staff of Wired Magazine.
Q. I have disabled the archives on my blog - is this a mistake? How can I get you to critique my blog?
Michael: I would definitely re-enable archives on your blog if your tool supports them; it will create that “permanent record” of entries, and enable future customers to find you through search engines. And if you’d like some feedback on your blog, feel free to email me directly.
Q. If we want to create our own blog network (like HuffPost), is that fairly easy with TypePad?
Michael: We have some customers that have used our tools in combination with tools from companies like FeedBurner to create blog networks similar to HuffPost. Check out what Business 2.0 is doing at blogs.business2.com as an example. And we are looking at building more “blog network” tools into TypePad directly.
Q: Is it easy to transfer an existing blog on a different system to TypePad?
Michael: Yes! Six Apart led the way in defining standards for import and export of blog content, and TypePad supports import and export. To learn more, visit our Knowledge Base at support.typepad.com and search for “import.”
Q. I'm still confused about the difference between, Vox, Moveable Type and TypePad. Would you go over this briefly?
Michael: I know it seems complicated! We have four products that are meant for different types of bloggers and different ways of blogging.
- Movable Type is something you can install on your own server
- TypePad is built for professionals and passionate bloggers looking to build an audience and communicate with the world and we host for you
- LiveJournal and Vox are built for individuals looking to communicate with friends and family and we also host them for you.
You can learn more about all of the products by visiting our site.
Q. Is there a way of finding what people in your industry are blogging?
Michael: Start with the blog search engines and query for key terms that would help you find sites similar to yours. Technorati , Google Blog Search, and Ask Blog Search are great tools for this. Once you find a few, it’s likely that they’ll be linking to other blogs that cover similar topics.
Q. Is there document storage capability with TypePad? How can I store a PDF document on my blog?
Michael: You can upload PDF documents, Microsoft Office documents, images, audio files, video files – any type of document at all – and include a link to that document in your blog post. TypePad makes it easy to upload those documents and the system will automatically build a link for you.
Q. Is there any way to track who is looking at my Blog? Could I use Google Analytics, for example?
Michael: TypePad includes basic visitor statistics functionality right out of the box. But if you’re interested in more complete analytics, you can use Google Analytics on your blog without any problems. (Note that this isn’t the case for some of the free services out there.) You can simply copy and paste the Analytics tracking JavaScript code into your blog templates (if you’re using Advanced Templates) or insert it as an item in one of your TypeLists.
Q. Can you explain how you could set up a URL of blog.mydomain.com?
Michael: TypePad supports “domain mapping” which will allow you to point blog.mydomain.com to your TypePad blog. You can learn all about the process by visiting our Knowledge Base and searching for “domain mapping.” We have several articles there that will walk you through the process.
Q. It sounds like the businesses are really using the blogs as a twist on a newsletter, or a forum. What is the advantage of a blog over a forum or a newsletter?
Michael: Newsletters and blogs can work well side by side; a newsletter has the opportunity to be customized to the recipient, whereas a blog is typically a more “public” conversation. One of the differences between blogs and newsletters is that newsletters, as with all messages, are almost by definition ephemeral – they get written, they get delivered, they get read, and then they disappear. Blog entries, on the other hand, have a permanent home on the web, where they can be discovered through search and links for weeks, months and years to come.
Blogs are distinct from forums in that blogs give the author a bit more control over the topic and tone of conversations. A business or an individual has a stronger voice on a blog (since the posts are primary and comments are secondary) vs. a free wheeling discussion on a forum.
Q. We use VR for SalesForce. Can the web-to-lead code be placed in a blog, like it is on our website, so our subscribers are captured directly in SF?
Michael: Absolutely. With TypePad You can include your web-to-lead capture code in the sidebar of your blog using our “Notes TypeList” feature, or if you are using our Advanced Templates you can also integrate it directly into your blog’s templates.
Q. What about an internal blog? We'd like to start there - how would we set that up so only our employees can view?
Michael: You can do that on TypePad using our password protection feature, where all of your employees would share the same username and password to gain access to the blog. Another option is for you to install Movable Type, which is our product that is used by thousands of our customers for internal collaboration “behind the firewall.” You can learn more about Movable Type on our site.
Q. What does RSS stand for?
Michael: RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary” depending on whom you ask. (The debate over what it stands for is a long, involved and terribly boring story…you really want to avoid that. Trust me.) But simply put, RSS is a “web feed” format that is typically used by blogs, news sites and podcasts to distribute updates to “feed readers” or “aggregators” like My Yahoo, Bloglines, Google Desktop, iTunes and other similar services. Many consumers are using RSS to keep up with the latest headlines, their favorite podcasts and their top blogs.
Q. What should a company consider initially posting about on their blog?
Michael: Well, it depends on your company and what business you’re in, but here are some starter ideas:
- Profiles / interviews with your staff, your customers or your partners
- The latest product or service news
- Commentary on related industry news
- Notes on upcoming events or conferences your company will be at
Q. What was the discount code again?
Michael: When you register at TypePad, enter the Referral Code of “VRWEBINAR” and you can receive 15% off of your lifetime subscription.
Q. Will the presentation be available?
Janine: Check out the recorded presentation and download the PDF files . Scroll down to "Past Webinars" and you will see it listed there!
website imprinted on them.
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Word of mouth can be an easy way to start to build your customer base and email marketing list. Can you rely on it solely? Probably not, only a few lucky ones can say they have. But it should be thought of as part of your marketing mix. There is a reason why retail stores have always printed their logos prominently on their merchandise bags. So here are very very easy ways to start some word of mouth for your business.
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