ThePodcastSisters

Show # 033 - Creating a Business from a Blog

This week's free audio show  is now available (remember subscribe free of charge and new shows will come automatically to your computer, just follow instructions at the end of the post)

Anna Farmery, one of the 3 of the Podcast Sisters,talks to Ian Green who is part of a whisky community that connected via a blog, then decided to invest and develop their own distillery!

A wonderful story of how a community rejected big brands and started their own company.

Here are the links mentioned in the show

Ladybank Distillery

Fuelmyblog

Wensleydale Cheese

Innocent Drinks

Ian Green

Join us over at the Podcast Sisters Facebook group to discuss this week's show and also do give us feedback and share ideas for future shows that will deliver value to YOU. You can also send us an email to podcast.sisters@googlemail.com.

REMEMBER SUBSCRIPTION TO THE PODCAST SISTERS IS FREE! 

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http://www.podcastfm.co.uk/podcast.rss?id=245

Could you podcast for 24 hrs?

Well Todd Cochrane, of Geek News Central Podcast and the Blubrry community,is going to try this Friday/Saturday!

He is podcasting for 24 hours to raise money for the One Laptop Per Child initiative.
This is a wonderful cause and if you want to find out more click to One Laptop Per Child, here is the essence of what they are trying to achieve

"OLPC is not, at heart, a technology program, nor is the XO a product in any conventional sense of the word. OLPC is a non-profit organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community."

Todd has put together a great schedule of guests which includes me, Anna Farmery and I am proud to be part of such an initiative. I believe that this is another illustration of how the social media community can really make a difference in the world and what a wonderfully giving community the on line world can be.

If you would like to donate to the cause then you can by emailing Todd at podcast@podcastconnect.com

Facebook - New Way to Categorise Your Friends

As you know The Podcast Sisters are keen Facebook users. However, many people that I speak to are concerned about mixing business with pleasure - if you are one of them then you will be pleased to see that
Facebook has just launched a  Friends List feature.

What this means is that you can now  separate your friends into different groups. This means that you can choose not to send mass messages but specific to each group. 

Even better the lists are kept private so no one knows about which list they are on!

I think this is a clear sign that Facebook is trying to listen to the concerns and evolve the space so that people can use the site as they want to....Now I wonder whether Krishna and Heather will have me as a work colleague or personal best buddy list...hmmmm

Show # 032 - Widgets and the Evolution of Web Marketing

This week's free audio show  is now available (remember subscribe free of charge and new shows will come automatically to your computer, just follow instructions at the end of the post) and sees all of the 3 of the Sisters  talking about the learnings from the widget conference, they also discuss domain name mapping and the 10th anniversary of the word - weblog. Here are the links that they mention in this weeks show

European Widget Conference last week organised by Ivan Pope.

GoDaddy  - For hosting

Hosting365  - For hosting

Blacknight Hosting - For hosting

Tim Berner Lee - Inventor of the web

Sta Travel Widgets - Examples of business widgets

Russell Davies

Elance - For freelance work   

Rentacoder - For freelance work

Camino - For getting rid of banner ads

Join us over at the Podcast Sisters Facebook group to discuss this week's show and also do give us feedback and share ideas for future shows that will deliver value to YOU. You can also send us an email to podcast.sisters@googlemail.com.

REMEMBER SUBSCRIPTION TO THE PODCAST SISTERS IS FREE! 

1) To listen now on line without any downloads then click on the Blubrry image below

2) Or to subscribe in iTunes      

3) Or if you use a different podcatcher then here are the feed details -

http://www.podcastfm.co.

Happy Birthday, Dear Weblogs!

Wow, a milestone as reported by the BBC news....

"The word "weblog" celebrates the 10th anniversary of it being coined on 17 December 1997.

The word was created by Jorn Barger to describe what he was doing with his pioneering Robot Wisdom web page. The word was an abbreviation for the "logging" of interesting "web" sites that Mr Barger featured on his regularly updated journal....Technorati, which keeps an eye on the blogosphere, estimates that there are now 120,000 new blogs being created every day. Posts are being added to blogs at a rate of 17 per second - a total of 1.5 million per day, says the firm."

Well I never...I, for one, am guilty of sometimes taking blogging for granted - it is the bedrock of my company, it has helped develop friendships with people like Krishna and Heather and it has even helped me lose 60lbs. Sorry blogging...I never meant to take you for granted and happy anniversary!

How has blogging changed your life?

Create a branded Facebook ID

Have you wondered how to make sure that you recall your Facebook ID?

Well Faceto.us is a new online free tool to help you customise and brand your Facebook ID.

As an example, my Facebook ID has been shortened to www.faceto.us/krishna and I also registered www.faceto.us/krishnade which is easy to remember and easy to understand when speaking it out loud to people.

I highly recommend you go and register your shortened Facebook ID today with a branded Faceto.us URL to help you build your personal brand online. Oh and don't forget you can connect with me at Facebook too!

And if you would like to know about 4 other online tools I recommend for creating shorter URL's you will find all the details here in this Biz Growth News article.

Tool for Customer Feedback

We all thrive on feedback to our service or product and one reader asked which product I use for gaining feedback. Well, if you want to do an online survey then a tool that I use is SurveyMonkey. It is important to think about what the goal of the survey is and plan the questions accordingly, but also keep it as short as possible otherwise people will not complete it. Here is what they say at their site....

"Using just your web browser, create your survey with our intuitive survey editor.  Select from over a dozen types of questions (multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus, and more..).  Powerful options allow you to require answers to any question, control the flow with custom skip logic, and even randomize answer choices to eliminate bias.
You can change the color, size, and style of any element in your survey. Upload your own logo, and save custom themes to use on all your surveys. There is never any branding or advertisements, so your surveys will always have a clean and professional appearance."

There is an initial free service which allows 10 questions and 100 responses per survey which I have used. These are based on 15 prebuilt themes. For larger ones there is either an unlimited plan for $200 per year or a monthly fee.

Want to win a Skypephone?

I have had a Skypephone on trial from 3mobilebuzz who used social media to connect with me. I had problems with Virgin, blogged about it in terms of how brands can lose value and they saw the chance to create value in my life by solving my issue...good stuff!

I have loved the Skypephone and can read my plus and minus review over at my blog The Engaging Brand but I have just seen that they are running a competition to win a Skypephone...

"All you need to do is tell us why you want a 3 Skypehone, simple right? There is one major requirement though… Your reason for wanting one must be expressed in a linkable format; that is the bottom line, we must be able to link to it."

Now what I love about this is that they connected through social media by solving a problem for me, they are now using a competition which creates value to you, to get their message around. So if you want the chance to win...hop over.

P.S Interestingly, am I sending you over because I had a trial...no, because the prize has value, that I like the product, that I like the way they have dealt with me and because it is a good example of how to use social media as part of an engagement plan.

Entrepreneur Success Stories and Tips

We love sharing ideas on how we have grown our businesses, here at The Podcast Sisters. Each month we also ask for tips and stories from readers that may help you create that business success that as an entrepreneur you are looking for...here are this months tips

Ron Ruiz presents Stay-At-Home Mom Creates Million Dollar Product posted at The Business Ideas-Making Money Blog.

Richard Lee presents Richard Lee » Tools Of The Successful: Reviewing posted at Richard Lee.

Anna presents 10 Inspiring Thoughts on Leadership posted at The Engaging Brand

Christine presents Increasing Internet Website Traffic to New Sites via Carnival Blogs posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France, saying, "This article is about generating traffic for your monetized website and not getting discouraged during the infancy of the website but rather encouraged by beginning to see results!"

MabelandHarry presents Believing in Your Goals posted at MabelandHarry

Doris Chua presents H.O.W. Feature - Mommie Photographer Valerie Wallace-Camp posted at A Meeting Place for All Home Office Women.

Andrew Erickson presents Taking the Long View - Are You In Business? posted at WebSite Werx.

Carol Bentley presents Here’s 8 elements for a powerful sales letter. . . posted at Here’s 8 elements for a powerful sales letter. . ..

Woody Maxim presents What's making me money? right now posted at Woody Maxim.

Robert Phillips presents More Than 123% Increase in Opt-Ins posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

Sagar presents Top 100 Entrepreneur Podcasts posted at Bootstrapper.

American Entrepreneur presents How to Start a Business without Quitting Your Day Job posted at American Entrepreneurship.

Ralph Jean-Paul presents Meet 7 People in 7 Days posted at Potential 2 Success, saying, "Looking for new clients and business contacts? There are 6.7 trillion people in the world.  How many of them do you know?  Meet a new person for business or social advancement each day this week."

Kenton Newby presents The Biggest Mistakes People Make When Starting Their Online Business posted at KentonNewby.com.

Steven Lafler presents Adventures in Self Employment posted at Self Employment for Bohemians, saying, "Steve Lafler has successfully avoided the corporate harness for all of his adult life, and you can too!"

Ed Rivis presents Ethical Internet Espionage. posted at Ed Rivis.

That concludes this edition.  Submit your blog article to the next edition of entrepreneur success stories using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Widgetery Goodness Part 2

As promised on this weeks podcast, here are some more 'random' notes on the Widget Conference.

• Widgets are about releasing content.
• 4 tips on creating great widgets:- Keep it simple, Make sure it is a perfect fit for your audience, Make it interactive, Keep refreshing the content
• Don't forget to tell people that the widget is portable, let them know they can share easily with their network.
• Ask yourself if the widget is a plug in that makes the core of your offer better...
• Think of a widget as "a flyer on steroids"
• Idea to monetize - put phone number to call for more content.
• In the near term, the web is about content and functionality but in the medium term it will be about liberating data for people to create their own version of the web.

Finally one of the overriding marketing messages was "You can't make me want your 'stuff', you can only bring it to me and help me, to use and share your 'stuff'