Questions to Ask Before Starting A Blog

I'm switching gears in this post to talk to blogger's with regard to content and starting a blog. Before begin a blog you need to determine what really interests you. What topic would you be interested in finding out more about and posting about on a regular basis?

Sometimes your blog topic is obvious such helping to support an online or local business that you have. If you are not selling anything, then you may be blogging to support your place in a professional field or your may be a writer and simply choose a topic that you are interested in and feel the need to share with others. You may also plan to write a book on the topic, so that the blog posts can become a book or help to promote the book.

Once you have that narrowed down to one or two areas, determine the targeted audience for each. Then do a Google search to determine how many blogs are already out there. If the topic has minimal exposure, you can step in to fill an overlooked niche. If it is a crowded topic then you need to find a name for your blog that can be easily found. Make it original, easy to spell and easy to remember.

If you find yourself in a crowded field make sure that you use a unique voice for your blog and cover areas that may not be well addressed by others. Don't be discouraged if the field for your blog topic is crowded. Many times readers will follow several blogs on topics that interest them.

Live Beacon: And Then There Was Light for Promoting Web Contnet

Live Beacon a small, battery-powered, cloud-controlled device that transmits web content and notifications to nearby smartphones by broadcasting any web page, video or web app up to 30 meters (100 feet)may be of interest of any number of businesses. It will be launching soon on Kickstarter.

With the free Live Beacon app, your iOS or Android smartphone receives a notification whenever there's a beacon nearby, and automatically changes content as you move from beacon-to-beacon making it possible for anyone to send location-specific information without a single line of code.

Information Points: Replace brochures, pamphlets and other printed materials with beacons that transmit online content. Save time and money printing, be more environmentally friendly, and never run out of copies.

Self-guided Tours: Create multimedia tours for cities, museums, galleries and attractions by placing beacons near points of interest. Visitors get to use their own smartphones and tablets rather than clunky handsets.

Games & Activities: Make fun treasure hunts to keep participants active and entertained. Play to their competitive spirit by 'gamifying' the real world — gotta find ‘em all!

Loyalty & Rewards: Build a digital loyalty card for your customers. Don't expect them to carry around yet another card; instead they simply tap the beacon at the counter to collect stamps.

Sites That Offer Helpful Content Tools for Bloggers

As a blogger you're always on the lookout for new content and new ways to make finding that content and posting it easier. So here are a few suggestions to check out the next time you hit a wall:



Giphy Chrome Extension for GIFS and animated GIFS

Grammarly and Correctica for checking your work before publishing

WordCounter to let you know where you are number wise

Hemingway App to assess your copy

Headline Analyzer to help you get attention for your posts


Visit Hubspot marketing for more details on these and other helpful sites from their bloggers.

Local Businesses Be Sure Your Web Content Can Be Found in Local Search

As you are blogging or sending out press it is important to know that half of all consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within the same day. Nearly one in ten of those searches led to a purchase within a day, according to a Google study. Bottom line, for local businesses, search marketing is a critical component to success.

While you want to push content out onto the Internet, if you have a business that draws the majority of its business from a local market, you need to make sure that your blog has links from other local sites. These could mean contributing content to another blog in your same town or city as well as pulling up in your business category on searches for your city.

Many small business owners are putting some dollars toward digital marketing, but according to a study by RevLocal nearly two-thirds say they spend less than $500 per month on digital advertising. Additionally, nearly six in ten businesses are investing in SEO and social media, and 36 percent are investing in review marketing.

FileCloud Extension Now Available for Google Chrome Users

CodeLathe, the provider of FileCloud, the IT industry's most innovative Enterprise File Sharing and Sync platform, has announced the availability of a FileCloud extension for users of Google Chrome.

This new, easy-to-use extension enables users to save documents, images, and screen captures directly from Chrome to FileCloud. By using the FileCloud for Chrome extension,users can now save, and easily share information while working within Chrome by selecting content and then opening the right click context menu in Chrome and then selecting the "Save to FileCloud" option.

"This announcement is yet another example of delivering the most innovative enterprise file sync and share software anywhere in the industry," said Madhan Kanagavel, CEO of CodeLathe. "Nearly everyone is logged into a web browser throughout the day. The ability to share and save work product directly from Chrome will ensure that organizations will remain collaborative and highly efficient."

For more information, visit www.getfilecloud.com.

Free Web Clipping and Note Sharing

Evernote has made news this week with its 8th Anniversary Celebration and the announcement that it is raising subscription fees for the paid plan of its note-taking app.

The good news is that Evernote Basic, which supports web clipping and note sharing is still free. On Basic, you can access notes on up to two devices, such as a computer and phone, two computers, or a phone and a tablet, as well as on the web, so you can continue to take your notes with you throughout your day. Passcode lock on the mobile app, formerly a paid feature, is now available on Basic as well.

Those who do not want to pay the increased fees for Evernote's paid plans do have other choices such as OneNote, a free service that has many features including clipping content from Web pages, attaching PDFs to notes, drawing (if you have a touch screen laptop)and table tools.

Easily Embed Web Content Into Your Presentations With New Liveslides Technology

Presenters are now able to embed any web content directly into their presentations thanks to a new PowerPoint and Keynote add-in called LiveSlides. Poll Everywhere, the company that pioneered the mobile audience response system, created the technology which is now available on both Windows and Mac platforms.

Liveslides enables seamless presentations without flipping back and forth between the presentation and a web browser to show a video, ask a poll question, or view a reporting dashboard. The add-in makes it possible to embed directly within the slide deck for a smooth presentation.

With the rise of social media, presenters and venues are increasingly using services such as Twitter and Facebook to interact with attendees during live events. LiveSlides makes it possible to display media streams directly within a slide deck and bring the backchannel to the foreground to increase audience interaction.

LiveSlides allows users to put real-time data into presentations. In the business world it's not uncommon for someone to take a screenshot of a live data dashboard, paste the picture in a slide, and present it. The tool also allows corporate trainers to demonstrate eLearning portals right within their presentations, and show participants how to use them.