Blogging 201 Teleseminar for Small Biz

I'll be doing a teleseminar on Profitable Blogging: How to Blog Effectively & Efficiently and Generate Sales for SpeakerNet News on May 9th. SpeakerNet News has a great series of teleseminars. They're not free, but modestly priced.

I'm excited - I'm focusing on the things that have made blogging really work well for many of my clients as well as myself! (There is a Part I also, How to Start a Blog: A Step-by-Step Guide on May 2nd by Tom Gray).

The focus is on consultants, speakers, solopreneurs and other small businesses. Topics include:

• How to ensure your blog has the characteristics shared by all successful business blogs
  
• What kind of results can you expect from your blog
  
• How many readers you need for profitability
  
• How to build traffic to your blog
  
• Search Engine Optimization for blogs
  
• How to write blog posts quickly and efficiently
  
• Ins and outs of promoting yourself and your products effectively
  
• Special considerations for promoting your book via a blog
• The pros and cons of running Google AdSense or other advertising in your blog

Ted, live at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

Yes, along with Elton John, Jerry Seinfeld, Celine Dion, and many others, looks like I'll be live at Caesars Palace in October!

The only difference is I'm not famous. Ohhh, I'll get paid a lot less too. And my name probably won't be in flashing lights either.

But I WILL have a longer show! I'll be teaching a three day Security Policy and Awareness class
for management. My show will be more expensive than the famous people shows, and there will be no drink minimum (yes, many Vegas shows have drink MINIMUMS! You must pay for at least X drinks).

Maybe I'll dress like Elvis, juggle, or get some trained Orangutans to join me . . . ?

This is my last entry. Why I shut down my blog

Sarah Hepola writes she has stopped blogging because it has gotten in the way of finishing, or maybe even seriously starting, her book.

Now it's not important who Sarah is, but her point, at least once expanded, is relevant to bloggers. What could we do with all our extra time if we didn't blog??

Well, in my case, not all that time would be "extra." I'd still be doing a lot of the research and writing for my blogs even if I were not blogging. I lot of material on this blog goes into articles, forthcoming book(s), reports for clients, etc. and even more etc. Sometimes it comes from them.

Blogging nonetheless takes time, and I try to make good use of it -- I only have so much.

Maybe my time would be better spend reading, or writing articles or newsletters, or drinking beer and coffee with friends (i.e. networking)? I could also sleep, something I often lack, excercise, play with my kids, etc.

I've been writing two blogs lately - that's a lot. And trying to finishing book #2. I think I'll slow down on blogging here -- not stop -- for a few weeks and finish that book . . .

Govern 'Net globally

As I promised, as I've just been reminded, I put my USA article on Internet governance up on demop.com.

This is the one that caused a flurry of hate mail, calling me a traitor, anti-American, blah blah blah. So what's that got to do with the Internet?

It's a few months old, but nothing has changed, although I'll add:
A lot of Windows-type people really don't understand the difference between a simple naming system, like DNS, which simple tracks domain names like demop.com and underlying Internet addresses like 202.33.25.4.22, and Active Directory, which is more of a database.

DNS should not be junked up by adding all sorts of (can I say "crap"?) that doesn't belong there. No offense intended to Active Directory, which is a great thing!

Blogs "essential" to a good career

The Boston Globe has a great article claiming that blogs are essential to a good career.

" A well-executed blog sets you apart as an expert in your field" - I agree, with almost everything in this article, EXCEPT the 'essential' part. Sorry, it's not essential.

Blogging is a choice, just as men can choose to grow a beard. Some men have such ugly scraggly growth that they may choose not to grow a beard -- with good reason.

Similarly, there are good reasons why someone may choose not to blog!

I'm still on the blog band wagon, but not a blind faith evangelist!

Security and Wireless and Blogs, Oh My!

Just put up my securITy newsletter on Security Policy and Wireless and Blogs, Oh My!

In any sizeable organization, you WILL have wireless, whether it's authorized or not.
Similarly, you WILL have employee bloggers.

There had better be a set of rules governing wireless and blogging, to protect the company AND employees!

securITy comes up irregularly a few times a year, and is eventually put on line. To get it in a reasonably timely fashion, you can subscribe for free.

Blogging's ROI , and Book Blogs for Marketing Books

A couple of posts on my other blog, Blogging for Business, have been extremely popular this week and may have general interest:

Blogging and ROI:
Does blogging have a return on investment (ROI) that is demonstratable, or does it just give us a warm touchy-feely sense of success? Well, in some cases it's demonstratable, for example in SEO results, but often it's not.

Sometimes the risk is in NOT blogging. All business decisions involve risk, and sometimes you're an absolute idiot if you don't take accept the risk. Microsoft and Pepsi investing in the Chinese market is absolutely risky, but they'd be moronic if they weren't doing it. It's the same for *some* companies and blogging. No "everyone must blog" rhetoric here!

Book blogs - more generically, promoting via blogs
Guerrilla Marketing author says that blogging has been so effective "my sense is it works better than anything else." A Guerilla Marketing author should know!

Why Best Practices Aren't

Best practices are often an excuse to turn off one's brain!

Long time readers know I'm no fan of best practices applied indiscriminately and unintelligently (as they often are), as I wrote in Avoiding "Worst Practices," or praying at "The Temple of Best Practices."

I recently ran across The Worst Thing about Best Practices by Michael McLaughlin, co-author of the highly recommended Guerilla Marketing for Consultants.

He gives four reasons to dump "Brainless Following, Sheep Style" - errr, make that "Best Practices":

1. They rarely work
2. It's a followers strategy (who knowingly hires, admires, or promotes followers?)
3. Change comes from within. People rarely respond well to implementing some other company'’s ideas.
4. They don'’t come with a manual (what do you do with them to make them work?)

Well worth checking out, as is the book and the Guerilla Consulting Blog (even if you're not a consultant!)

Great Training Classes - SANS Institute

I've done a lot of training in my life, and had a great class last week.

It *might* not seem great at first glance - well over 2000 (yes, thousand) pages of material to cover, 6 days from 9AM-5PM, Mon - Sat, and even an evening "bootcamp session" each night. In many ways a real bear to teach, but it was great.

Why? What makes a great class?

Great Materials: The student materials were absolutely superb. Each slide had notes -- in some cases 5 plus pages of carefully researched and written notes. The material was very up to date, having been entirely recently reworked. Great materials matter.

Great Attendees: No one volunteers for a class that includes nights and Saturdays unless they really want to take it, and it never seems that anyone is forced to take this class. I had a pretty challenging group as always, and they were happy to be there and learning the materials -- although in some cases, individual students knew more about some topics than I do. This is to be expected!

Immediately Applicable Knowledge: There was (hopefully in almost all cases) information the participants could use immediately! Anyone ever have a training class where the knowledge gained might be useful in maybe a few months? -- if you're lucky. Unfortunately, these are often a waste of resources.

The class? The SANS Institute's Security Essentials. I'm back in their rotation teaching classes again and enjoying it immensely. I was too busy for a while. Oh yes, it's work, but enjoyable. I learn a lot from the students as well . . .

My next open enrollment one is in Toronto June 25-30, and I've got an onsite in lovely Dayton Ohio before that (that's a joke! Dayton is OK, but as many readers know, "lovely" is NOT the correct word).