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Recently I’ve had a few conversations with my old friend James at Conscious Revolution Now about the value of using a blog as a business tool - specifically with WordPress and a decent theme.

While our blogs are not intended be such (at least mine isn’t), there is so much value that a business could gain by using the blog platform to communicate and engage with its prospects and customers.

The reason is very simply this: WordPress is more than a blog.  It is a search engine optimized, highly customizable CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM that DOES NOT require programming skills to leverage.

What if I told you that I’ve customized this blog to look and feel the way it does without any programming?

Would you believe me?

Well…the answer is that it’s true.  If you don’t believe me, then I challenge you to call me on it if you want to use a blog theme like mine (or one of the other millions of them out there) for your business.

The bottom line is that WordPress and a good theme like the one I’m using from Solostream is all you really need.  The rest is up to you.

Gone are the days where you’ll need to call your web developer everytime you need something changed or updated.

Most, if not ALL of what you’ll want to do is do-able within the WordPress publishing panel.

Anyway, here are 10 resources that I think someone rolling out a blog as a business tool should review:

1. Blogs keep Internet Customers Coming back. WSJ.com
2. Understanding Blog Speak. Blogherald.com
3. How to Blog Safely. Electronic Frontier Foundation.
4. Best Blog Sites for Business. iBlogBusiness.com
5. What is RSS?. Debbie Weil
6. What is Social Media? thescobleizer.com
7. Blogging for small Business. Microsoft
8. Technorati blog aggregator.  Technorati.com
9. Forbes best of the web for blogs. Forbes.com
10. Check out Seth Godin. sethgodin.typepad.com

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Generally, the term usability refers to how easily one can navigate around a given website and find what they are looking for.

It also refers to a few other things that are less about function or form, but more about content. Nothing drives me nuts more than going to blog that has no direction, no focus and doesn’t immediately let me know what it’s all about.

In most cases, this can make it tough for new readers to understand the site and develop trust with it’s author(s). Oh, wait a minute? This sounds like my site! The tag line around here these days is “things I am inspired to blog about”.

Actually, I aim to develop a readership of people who arrived on the site because they are looking for something in one of my categories.

Well defined categories and a half decent about page (one of the most visited pages in my blog), can help eliminate this problem. Here are some other things that I’ve learned which will help increase your blog (or website’s usability).

1. Work hard to say more, with less words.
2. Use bold and bullets because people don’t read, they skim and scan.
3. Use video whenever possible. People want infotainment - so give it to them with video.
4. Don’t force users to open your links in new windows or tabs to keep them on your site. If they don’t like you or your content, they will leave anyway.
5. Mix up your sentence structure and length.

For a few more ideas check out ne of the best posts on this subject from Performancing Ads. It was written a few years ago and it still is just as accurate today.

You can read it here.

Do you have any comments or suggestions of your own that you’d like to add?

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It kind of reminds me of the search engine I reviewed a while back called Cuil.

After doing some research, I’ve learned that they’ve only been around about a 18 months and are driving about 2,700,000 visitors a month according to Compete.com as of this post.

By comparison, it is estimated that Google gets about 132,000,000 million visits a month.

What makes Mahalo different is a few things:

1. They say that they are a human powered search engine that is different from the others that use software and algorithms.  They claim to produce “hand crafted” results for you.
2. The result pages are great! You will get pictures, text, videos and other media. In addition, I found links to some very cool stuff that never came up on comparable Google or Yahoo! searches.
3. They claim to list quality websites and links you wouldn’t find at other search engines over low quality spam sites with excessive advertising.

Their whole process is mildly reminiscent to me of the early days at Yahoo! when people were categorizing stuff on the web by hand and then it just got to big to handle, so they automated it and the rest is history.

Having said that, I did a search for BMW M5 on Mahalo and was totally impressed with the result page that I got.

If I was going to make a page about that car based on stuff from the web, it would be very similar to what I saw.

In comparison, I did a search for Brooks Van Norman, and the result page said “we’ve never heard of you”.

Why am I not in here?

While I almost closed my browser at that point, until I saw a link that said “Create a Brooks Van Norman page”.

So I did.

…by merely adding the link to this blog!

We’ll see if those human editors think I’m good enough to be listed in their cool search engine!

Anyway, I like Mahalo.  I would call it a Web 3.0 search engine - a social media based search engine with morals.

Let’s watch and see if they can scale…

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Don’t worry, he’s not dead. In fact he’s probably doing better than ever.  He recently sold his ultra cool, boutique WordPress blog theme brand called Solostream to the Jigsaw group headed up by Mike Durkin (I can’t help but wonder if the name Jigsaw has anything to do with the movie Saw…)

The press release talks about new products, enhanced customer service and enhanced innovations.

It looks like Mike Durkin and his growing team are doing what I’ve been recommending people do with Solostream’s great blog themes - use them for business, not just miscellaneous ramblings like I do.  (Maybe that IS a business?) Also, it looks like Michael Pollock is sticking around for a while to ensure things go smoothly: GOOD MOVE.

Solostream VYBE Premium WordPress Blog Theme Gallery - Look Familiar?

Anyway, this is a big deal and I am inspired to write about for two reasons:

1. It’s the first time that I am aware of that a premium blog theme brand for WordPress has been bought by someone.  This is significant because it symbolizes the WordPress community and the growing legitimacy of blogs as powerful content management tools that anyone, including business, can use to easily and professionally share information.

2. It should serve as a reminder to all of us that there continues to be wonderful, exciting success stories about a guy working alone in his basement, living on Micky D’s (who is in much better shape now I understand), that taught himself to write code, with no one but parakeets to keep him company while he executes his vision, builds up a brand out of nowhere and then sells it.  Michael Pollock did exactly that and my hat is off to him.

I like Solostream’s themes and I’ve looked at probably a hundred competitors.  Somehow Michael always managed to keep the right balance between functionality and funkyness.

People always compliment me on my blog as if I had something to do with the way it looks and feels.  That is very important to hear because what they’re really talking about is usability and usability is key.

Anyway, although it does produce very little revenue, my blog is not a business, it’s primarily an outlet for me.  But it still matters how it looks and feels.  I like stuff that looks and feels good.  More importantly, when I need support, I want to be able to get it from my providers.

So far I haven’t had to see how the support mechanism works with the “new” Solostream, but if Michael’s fingerprints and DNA are left anywhere on the process side of the business, I’m guessing he will have purposely left them in the customer service and support departments.

Because without the kind of help and support that he provided to me, the brand will surely struggle in the face of extreme WP competition.  The best thing the new Solostream can do is figure out how to keep making Michael’s secret sauce with sexy, but functional new blog designs while ensuring cost effective, easy to consume pre AND post sales support.

If they can do that, I’m in for the long haul… Blog themes for business!

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Well, the second problem was easier to fix than the first one. They may never solve the first one, even though YouTube remains the number one video sharing site in the world (and the number two most visited website behind Yahoo.com, according to Alexa).

Anyway, if you want your videos to play on YouTube in high quality, there are a couple of very simple, but techie things you need to be aware of.  First, you need to produce your video at a resolution of 480 pixels wide, by 360 pixels wide (or higher). That is the default player size on the YouTube screen.

The second thing that you need to do is make sure (and this is really important) is make sure that your video is originally recorded at 24 fps (frames per second) or higher.  Usually you can check those settings in your camera.

Then, when you are in YouTube, you will have the option to view the clip in high quality.  Note that it is NOT high definition, just high quality and it DOES look better - impaired hang-over vision cured!

Also, you can change the default settings in your YouTube account to always play videos in high quality, when available.

Here’s a video about how to do all of the above:

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Paypal has a service called WebSite Payments, which I got set up in a few minutes.  You have to be a PayPal user, but that doesn’t take very long to set up either.

All you need to do is log into your PayPal account and click on the Merchant Tools tab in the middle of menu bar.

From there you go to left side of the page and select WebSite Payments Standard and then configure your buttons based on how you want them to look.

The HTML code is automatically generated when you are finished configuring. All you need to do then is just put that HTML code in your web page, update it and you are ready to begin accepting payment.

It’s really that simple.

The DOWNSIDE to this solution is that when someone clicks on your button, they are taken to a generic PayPal page which won’t look like your site.  That site isn’t very clear about what to do next - the options are either to log into PayPal, or to continue without logging in.

If you depend on conversions from a web page that looks and feels like your site and is on the same domain, then I suggest you look into PayPal’s next best solution called WebSite Payments Pro.

Because this solution, while simple and easy, DOES not look very good after the buyer clicks your buy now button.

Here’s a video on how and why I chose this solution for my blog:

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It is free and very simple to use. All you have to do is go to the socialmarker.com home page and drag the social marker icon to your toolbar in either Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Social Marker Logo

Then, anytime you want to promote a page (such as your own), you just highlight whatever text you think would be appropriate to submit to the social media sites and then the social marker tool bar button and you are taken the Social Marker website.

When you are at the Social Marker website, your bookmark details are pre-filled except for your tags. Fill in your tags and then hit the submit button on the top right side of the page.

I`m not sure how long the social media sites would tolerate this kind of aggregation service, but as long as the content is legitimate, I can`t see this one going away or being blocked soon.

On one of my pages here at BrooksVanNorman.com, I tried it and found that it was in all of the social media sites that I submitted to.

Bam.

You gotta like that.

Here is a short video clip of how it works.

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Dave is a certified Sony Creative Engineer and has put together an awesome web video training course with some valuable information about web video production and web video marketing.   Although he isn’t exactly the most entertaining instructor you’ll ever meet, there ARE a number of resources and tricks that I would have gladly paid the price of the course for.

The course cost $397 for the premium version, which gives you access to Dave for a full year.

The course is set up so that you get weekly lessons as each 7 days pass.  I think it would be better for students to have access to the entire course up front so they can move through it faster if they wish.

The basic version does not afford you access to Dave.  I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase the full version, since access to Dave is well worth the price if you are new to video production.

He was always prompt and thorough in every reply to my questions. Dave was polite and credible with all of his answers, although sometimes I wish he was less objective in some of his responses.

You can ask Dave questions directly through email.

Here’s an example of the type of question I often asked him and the type of response I would get:

Dave,

When you upload the two files for the flash player to your website, does it matter what directory you put them in?  And does the embed code have to reference that directory?

Brooks,

It doesn’t matter what directory you put them in…as long as the embed code contains the path to them.  So if you put them in a directory other than where the web page is located, you’ll need to specify the path to them in the embed code.

I checked my Sent items and recorded having 12 such conversations with Dave during the 8 weeks I was taking the course.  Below are just SOME of the bits you can expect to learn during the course.

While thinking about what to include in this post, I realized just how much value and detail exists in Dave’s Web Video University and couldn’t include them all, or this post would be just way too long.

• In week one of the course you learn about how to make your own teleprompter (Worth the price of the course alone), where to get good stock audio and video clips, secrets of lighting, video editing software, what kind of software to get and why, green screen introductions and an overview of the technical terms.

• In week two, you get right into building some web videos.  You learn how to script them so that people take action, which is big theme throughout the course) and begin down the path of learning to use Sony Vegas, which is the software of choice for Windows users (which I have since purchased and am very pleased with it).

• In week three, you continue with the learning by developing a few more web videos and commercials while learning more advanced tricks and functionality in the software.  You will learn what I’ve come to appreciate are very critical elements to keeping viewers engaged - such as panning and zooming, key framing and 3D compositing.   In addition, Dave covers the aspects of green screening.   I have learned there is no such thing as “one click” green screening as it is a process of many, many steps if you want it to look good.

• In the fourth and final week, you will learn about video streaming, video sharing sites, the important elements you need to know about Quicktime and Flash.  In addition, you’ll learn how to make that cool lightbox effect happen on your website for your videos. You will also have a final assignment to create your first web video, which is below.

Because I’ve spent some time around the domain of e-learning, web training and have even authored as well as co-developed a few courses while working as a program manager for billion dollar software company, I know a few things about the principles of effectiveness when it comes to this type of knowledge transfer.

Dave has nailed them all.

His course is right on the money if you want to quickly develop a powerful and lucrative skill set for producing your own, high quality web videos.  The entire course is very well organized.  Each module is never more than about ten minutes and most are about 5 minutes in length. Dave speaks clearly and at the right pace for someone just getting in this space.

In fact, I think this type of highly targeted, extremely efficient learning is the model of the future. This type of learning is going to seriously challenge the traditional institutional model of education.

I think that Web Video University could easily be delivered in the traditional college level model for thousands of dollars and people would still think it’s a bargain.

The resources section at the end of each week is second to none - and as I mentioned, they are worth the price of the course alone.

One thing that I found quite frustrating after the course was just how much time I was spending trying to find the exact motion loop, background or stock image for my projects.

Be forewarned! - You can burn a TON of time trying to find the right thing.

You can dramatically cut down on that time by properly scripting out your videos (good scripting techniques are taught in the course) BEFORE you head over to places like iStockphoto for your content.

If you don’t have the appropriate software and hardware for your needs, you can expect to spend an addition $400 to $1,200 depending on your needs and goals.  This would include a few different software packages and any lighting or camera equipment you may not have.

So far, including the cost of the course and software, I have spent about $700.

I look forward to helping my clients with this new skill and am totally pleased with my investment in Web Video University.  If you have any further questions about the course, please don’t hesitate to ask me.

If you want to quickly get through the course and you had no other commitments, I think you could probably blast through it in about 2 weeks, but you will need to be very focussed as the learning curve is quite steep.

You will be learning a lot more than how to just use video editing software.

While you don’t need to be a programmer to learn and apply this material, it will certainly help if you know your way around the internet, understand some of the common file formats and are familiar with terms and concepts like FTP, hosting, web directories and so on.

You’ll learn all this stuff at Web Video University.

Anyway, below is my first video.  Don’t get too excited about the content - It was intended to showcase most of the key elements that go into this type of production such as key framing, rendering to Flash, obtaining subject specific media from some of the stock sites Dave recommends, using the Cinescore software that came with my software bundle from Sony to create the royalty free music.

All in, the whole thing took up about four hours of my time to produce. Much of that time was wasted getting signed up for the stock media sites and trying to get the software to do things with a skill set still not yet fully enabled.

I would expect in the near future, that I could develop something much better, with far more impact in no more than two hours.

That said, I am quite pleased to have gone from ZERO skills in this area to being fully capable of developing web videos that will compel people to take action and better communicate any message much better than text on a web page EVER could.

And yes, Dave, you are welcome to use me, or any of this post as a reference…

In short, Web Video University was a solid investment and I strongly recommend it if you want to increase your skills in video production and video marketing.

If you’d like to sign up for the course, you can click here.

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Wasn’t technology supposed to make things easier?  Didn’t we all have the future planned for leisurely pursuits while technology did all the heavy lifting?

Heck no!  In fact, the more that I think about technology, the more I think about it’s ability to consume my time.

As long as I’m working for a living - it seems that the case.  What’s worse, is that I work in the technology field, which seems to amplify the problem.

And don’t even get me started on the subject of wasting time with stuff like Facebook!!!

Maybe it’s just that the fall is a busy time of the year, but it seems that the only way to get more time in the day lately, is to sleep less.  That’s what super athlete and one of my fitness heroes Dean “ultramarathon man” Karnazes does.   This dude is a machine - and he’s got a totally great life story, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Karno has done away with lots of sleep to achieve his goals - I’m not sure that I’m ready to do that yet, because sleep REALLY helps me to feel better, reduce depression and more focused during the day.

Anyway, the thing that really burns my wagon lately is that time seems to be going faster and faster.  Is it Friday again? Is it fall again?  Where did the summer go?  Am I being as productive as I can be?

Do you feel the same way?

I now realize that time is the most valuable, non-renewable resource that you and I have.  Period.

For most of us, (especially if you use email) the problem is email overload and information excess.   I look at most of the people that I work with, from CEO’s to sales reps - the situation is the same.

This problem is bigger now, than it ever has been.  So I did some analysis of my time use and realized (not surprisingly - duh!) that 80% of my output comes from 20% of my activities and time.

I have also STOPPED being a slave to my inbox.  What I’ve done is NOT start my day checking email.  Instead, I work on my highest priority tasks FIRST thing until about 10am, THEN I open up the monster, until about 11~ish.

I’ll do the same again a few times in the afternoon.

When I don’t do this, I find that dealing with email first thing, puts me into a state of having to deal with manufactured emergencies and my very important to-do list becomes an afterthought.

On those days, By 5pm, I feel useless and wonder why nothing important got done.

Not anymore.

The next thing that I am going to look into is outsourcing as much of the non-productive activities to virtual assistants in other parts of the world.

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Then they show people a “new” operating system called “Mojave” and asks them to respond to it.  The website then shows the same people favorably responding to the operating system.

At the end of the clip, they tell the users that the software is in fact Windows Vista and the responses are actually quite entertaining because you know it’s coming.

Then you’re prompted to learn more, buy it or visit the Vista website. No big surprise there.

I really liked this video and the way Microsoft is marketing it because it’s real and it does a very good job of showcasing business people like you and me going through the same reactions we probably would.

From a pre-sell perspective, this type of marketing does a killer job of helping to eliminate the fear, uncertainty and doubt that comes with any new product.  This is very useful and goes a long way to accelerating sales.

Lastly, I think this video site is a model for others who want to market just about anything on the web because it’s real, it’s behind the scenes and it’s video based.  It show cases where I think the web is going - using video to compel you to act, with very little text.

Check it out here.

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