As our inaugural podcast of the Effective Entrepreneur Radio Show we have part one of a two part interview with best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki.

The Effective Entrepreneur™ radio show is dedicated to the growth of small businesses just like yours. Whether you’re a “budding entrepreneur” or a seasoned business owner — the Effective Entrepreneur™ radio show is designed to bring you street-smart strategies and proven tactics that will help you grow your business and gain a competitive advantage over others in your industry or niche.

Robert is successful business owner and real estate investor, international educator in financial success, and best-selling author of the “rich Dad, Poor Dad” book series.

Click here to check out part one of our business coaching interview with Robert Kiyosaki and subscribe to the podcast for the Effective Entrepreneur™ radio show at the Business Owners Blog.

As you know, Deborah and I are passionate about business ownership. Building saleable businesses is what allowed us to move from New Jersey and create our ideal lifestyle here in Hawaii — and we want the same for you!

As click-and-mortar business coaches we’re dedicated to bringing you the most practical and applicable business development information available. We want you to be able to use your small business to create and support your ideal lifestyle.

The Effective Entrepreneur ™ radio show is another resource to help you create transformational business growth.

It’s an internet radio show is dedicated to the growth of small businesses just like yours. Whether you’re a “budding entrepreneur” or a seasoned business owner — the Effective Entrepreneur™ radio show is designed to bring you street-smart strategies and proven tactics that will help you grow your business and gain a competitive advantage over others in your industry or niche.

The first show starts on April 1st.

It’s an interview with best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki. A high-impact interview you’ll want to catch as soon as it’s released! Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!

Get the full details and subscribe for FREE at the Business Owner’s Blog.

Brought to you by RPM Success Group Inc.® and powered by the Business Owner’s Coaching Club™.

In the previous three parts to this series we looked at a number of highly effective ways for you to leverage your business blog by integrating it with your online networking. But no matter how you choose to integrate your business blog with your online business networking – you should do everything you can to expand conversations begun in the online business network environment on your business blog.

Use the diagram I shared with you in part two of this series on business blogging and online networking to remind yourself on how your business blog should be structured. Print out that diagram and keep in mind that the most power comes from conversations centered around tightly focused topical articles and posts. The more you can do to encourage those expanded conversations, the more impact your business blog will have on your relationship building with prospects, clients, and partners.

Three simple starter steps to encouraging dialogue on your business blog

There are three steps you can take to increase dialogue and create higher interaction with visiting members of your online business network. While this is in no means a comprehensive list, these should be the first you take action on.

1. Allow commenting

There are quite a few business blogs I come across that have their commenting feature turned off. Many business owners get tired filtering through comment Spam and unrelated comment posts, and choose to simply turn off the commenting feature on their business blog. I can certainly empathize with that.

But without the ability to comment on your blog, you’ve reverted back to a one-way dialogue with your readers. Instead of turning off the commenting feature on your business blog, you can take a couple simple steps that’ll significantly reduce the amount of comment Spam you have to deal with.

a. Set your business blog to require comments to be moderated before being posted live on the Web.

b. Require anyone posting a comment to submit his or her first and last name along with a valid e-mail address.

2. Actively solicit feedback

Throughout the body, and at the end of your posts solicit comments from readers with action-based questions. Offer direct requests for feedback and expanded ideas.

The vast majority of visitors to your business blog are still new to blogging and unfamiliar with the structure of a blog. They still view your blog as “your web site.” They may not realize they can interact with you. Or even if they do, they may simply hesitate to contribute because they feel it’s inappropriate to comment.

In situations of uncertainty, people are most likely to take the safest route — which in this case will be to not post any comments. You can help them overcome this barrier and a significant way by simply and clearly stating your desire for comments, questions, and expanded ideas.

3. Engage in (relevant) cross-blog talk

When a member of your online business network visits your business blog and comments on a post, research that person and see if they have a business blog themselves. If you find that they do have a business blog that complements your niche/focus – you can post comments directly to their blog. Or create a topical post on your own business blog and use a trackback to reference their blog.

If you’re new to blogging this may seem a little incestuous at first glance. But I assure you it’s simply a wise leveraging of your online business networking time.

This other person may be a member of the same online business network you belong to, but they’re likely to have many people in their personal network that you haven’t come in contact with. If the two of you share a similar interest, it’s likely that some of the people in their network will be interested in what you have to say, and vice-versa.

By generating this cross-blog talk you gain a lot more exposure to people you otherwise might not have met. It’s like getting and indirect endorsement or referral, and we all know how powerful referrals are.

The greatest impact is with visitors from your online business network

All these tips can work with any visitor to your business blog. But they’re likely to have greater impact with members of your online network because you can “pre-frame” and encourage them to interact in your communications referencing them to your business blog.

For example — in a communication that you participate in on your online business network you can add value and encourage interaction before anyone even visits your business blog. As you participate in the discussion in your networking group, you can accomplish this by simply saying something like:

>“Check out the two articles I have over at my www.myblog.com. They both expand on this topic we’re discussing here. I’d love your input, feedback, and expansion on my ideas. Please take 60-seconds to post your comments when you visit my blog – that’ll really help us all learn more with different viewpoints!”

When you expand dialogues started in your online business network on your business blog, you exponentially multiply all the benefits you gain through your online networking. Start combining these two high-touch, high-tech communication tools and you’ll save more time, attract more clients, and build a global business faster and easier than you could imagine!

If you don’t yet have your own business blog, or if you’d like to learn how to leverage your existing business blog for …

· More targeted traffic,
· More trust with qualified prospects,
· And more effective word of mouth marketing from your existing clients

… Then be sure to check out interactive coaching course “How to Master Business Blogging.” It includes over 10 hours of interactive audio coaching, three business blogging playbooks, and over 60-minutes of how-to video.

You’ll learn how to create a cutting edge business blog that pulls in streams of targeted traffic into your domain, and pulls your site up to the top of the search engines in as little as 30-days!

Get it all now at http://www.howtobusinessblog.com.

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club
http:/www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

Business blogs and online business networks

When I talk about business blogging and online networking, I want to be perfectly clear. In no way am I saying that a business blog can replace the networking power of online social networks. But with a solid business blogging strategy you can exponentially multiplied all your online networking efforts.

Here are three simple examples of how your business blog can work extra-hard for you.

1. “Real-time” topical discussions

Let’s say you enter a real-time topical discussion in progress online. Make sure you select a discussion that you have expertise or experience in. As you interact and build relationships on the network you can refer people back to your business blog for added information or expanded discussions.

When you have a niche focused business blog up and running — it can be as simple as saying, “I have three posts on my blog that expand on this very topic. You can learn more at www.myblog.com.”

2. “Live” online conferences

Some online business networks have regular events where all members can meet and interact real-time online in chat rooms, forums, or in group emails. The International Virtual Women’s Chamber of Commerce (http://www.ivwcc.org) is one such organization that holds a monthly “meet and greet.”

Here at these full day “virtual events” the owners of small businesses get to connect and build relationships with other business owners around the U.S. (Although it’s mostly women business owners – men still are allowed to join. :))

Similar to live topical discussions, these organization-wide virtual networking events provide a perfect environment for you to use your business blog to build relationships and expose people to your expertise.

3. Direct response to members’ questions

Very often in these online business networks other members will have questions or challenges that they post on forums or discussion groups. These members will request comments, feedback, or advice on varying issues, and sometimes those issues may match your expertise.

When you reply with both an answer and a reference back to expanded information/education on your business blog — you’ve gained additional exposure with a highly targeted audience.

In all three cases, when you regularly combine your business blog with your online business networking you’ll gain a steady stream of highly qualified prospects. You win in three big ways:

· You gain credibility and build rapport faster because you’re “giving” valuable information people have already requested, and you’re not asking for anything in return.

· You position yourself as an expert in your niche when members of your network visit your business blog and see how much knowledge you actually having your area of expertise.

· Your recommendations and references back to your business blog live on long after the initial communication dialogue.

Unlike off-line networking (where when the event is over, it’s over,) any communications that take place in the online business network live on for other members to reference for many months. That means exponential leverage of the first two benefits mentioned above.

In part four (the final installment of this series) — I’ll share three steps you can take to increase dialogue on your business blog and create higher interaction with visiting members of your online business network.

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club
http:/www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

There are dozens of business oriented social networks out there. But for this article series I’m highlighting the two most popular — Ryze and Ecademy. Each operate a little differently and bring varying opportunities for you to use your business blog further leverage your time and expand your online networking influence.

Ryze:

Ryze is a social grid that allows members to interact with each other through niche topic groups, or in Ryze as a whole. This online business network is forum based. It’s a U.S.-based network that has business people from diverse industries and company sizes from around the world.

(You can learn more about Ryze at http://new.ryze.com.)

Ecademy:

This organization is more of a true social network where all your communications across the entire Ecademy network are tracked and organized for you. Ecademy has also stepped up their networking environment to a higher level by adding internal membership blogs. It’s a UK-based network whose international members are primarily professionals and owners/executives of larger companies.

(You can learn more about Ecademy international at http://www.ecademy.com or the US chapter at http://us.ecademy.com.)

Linear posting vs. business blogs

As great as these online business networks are at forming relationships, the standard linear posting and tracking of online communications can be somewhat limiting. Following a thread of discussion topic can be frustrating and time-consuming for members. This is where your business blog comes to the rescue.

I came across an excellent diagram that Tom Coates over at the http://www.plasticbag.org blog had that illustrates the challenge with linear posting, and how business blogs overcome it.

As you can see, many of the relational benefits in an online conversation are lost in linear posting. But with your business blog, discussions stay organized and people are a lot more likely to get the full context of the discussion, and therefore gain more benefits.

In part three of this series … you’ll learn how to improve the communication flow of your online business networking, broaden discussions, and attract more qualified prospects by strategically integrating your business blog into your online communications.

John-Paul Micek
The Click-and-Mortar Business Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club
http:/www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

For nearly a decade online networking has been a huge timesavings for busy business owners and professionals. And now with business blogging there’s an even greater opportunity to maximize the relationships you form virtually, and exponentially multiply the benefits of online business networks.

In this four-part article series you’ll learn why business blogs are such a powerful complement to online business networking associations. And I’ll be coaching you on how you can start reaping those added benefits right away!
(more…)

Corporate board members are usually very busy people. They have a lot on their plate, they’re often running their own business, and to top it all off — they’re not usually compensated for the time they dedicate to board activities.

Now while that’s all true for both profit and non-profit companies, non-profits stand to gain the most by fully engaging their corporate board members. With non-profits, the guidance and direction of corporate board members can be even more valuable since funding for other outside sources of guidance (from consultants or business coaches) is likely to be limited.

The bottom line is the more steps you can take to make it easier for board members to contribute and fully participate, the more actively they’ll be fully engaged and give their all.

Part of the answer lies in a private “Board Members Business Blog”

When you put together a private password protected business blog for these corporate board members (similar to what we discussed earlier with the small business advisory board) you’ll create a win-win-win scenario.

Win #1: For the corporate board members

The corporate board members win because they can advise, guide, and provide input “virtually.” That means interacting more and meeting in-person less. And since many members on the boards of non-profit companies are fulfilling some of their personal desires to contribute, they’ll appreciate the fact that they’re able to contribute even more thanks to a high efficiency business blog.

Win #2: For your company

Since board members have time to digest topics, comments, and conversations the company wins because you’re getting more well-thought out direction from the people on the board. The company also wins because applying a business blog in this way creates more of a mastermind environment where board members can build on and expand on each others ideas in a more creative, un-rushed manner.

Win #3: For your clients

Your clients win because you draw out more effective solutions and ideas from the board. At the same time your business blog allows equips your team to put those ideas into action in between lengthy in-person board meetings.

On top of all these wins though, my favorite benefit has to be the archiving of all contributions and guidance from board members organized and categorized for easy reference. One of the biggest losses in efficiency and impact that I’ve witnessed with corporate boards is when the board membership turns over. Now with your board member business blog — you can make all the invaluable historical data generated by your advisory board is available for new members to draw on for years to come.

With proper planning, the right structure, and a few simple strategies you can fully harness the power of business blogging for your company. Remember — business blogging is not just about marketing! The strategies and principles you need to fully harness the power of business blogging are easier to obtain than you think.

You can check out the How to Master Business Blogging course, or you can choose to unearth all the proven approaches on your — that’s up to you. But what I can’t recommend strongly enough is that you get started today.

The 21st Century marketplace is not a place to hesitate. It’s no longer the big that eat the small. It’s the fast that eat the slow. And my passion is to help business owners move as fast possible. Business blogging is just one of the ways to do that!

John-Paul Micek
Click-and-Mortar Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club
http:/www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

© Copyright 1999-2005 by RPM Success Group ®, All rights reserved. You may use this article/post in part with an active trackback, or in it’s entirety as an RSS feed without previous permission, so long as it is published with the full authors tag and copyright notices. Call RPM Success Group toll free at 888-334-8151 for offline reprint permissions, or by email editor@rpmsuccess.com.

Do you have employees in multiple remote locations? As part of your business, do you have to supply updates to clients? What about delivering “premium” content to subscribers or clients?

With the organized interactive format of your business blog, paired with the power of the RSS feed (already incorporated into your blog,) you can bypass email, Spam filters, and unreliable delivery to make sure your message gets through instantly – every time.

Update every remote employee or every premium content client instantly, reliably, and all at once. Then drive them back to the blog for posting, interaction, and commentary.

Once again, a major part of the power in this application of your business blog is the categorized historical data that is right here on the blog adding content and relational value to all the users.

Learn how you can apply this powerful profit releasing tool in your small business. It’s just one of the many benefits waiting for you at with the How To Master Business Blogging course.

Thanks to outsourcing, today’s small business owner has access to a pool of talent that once was reserved only for large corporations. Flexibility, highly specialized skills, and performance-based pay are just a few of the enticing benefits that come with outsourcing. But for many small business owners the communication, coordination, and tracking challenges of outsourcing often appear bigger than the benefits.

That annoys the heck out me, and let me tell you why.

My partner Deborah and I are passionate about helping business owners achieve their full potential — both in terms of profits, and lifestyle! That’s the main reason we launched the Business Owner’s Coaching Club. And to be quite frank with you, it’s why I’m really upset that so many small business owners are missing out on the leverage of outsourcing.

These hard working men and women are having to keep more on their plates and live a life of lower quality because they have less free time than they could with outsourcing. They’re suffering with higher costs, and often a lower quality of work because they feel it’s easier to use less specialized in-house employees to do work. Work that could be done better (and more efficiently) with an outsource agent.

That’s a shame because we’ve seen incredible transformations take place for small business owners who begin to apply proven outsourcing strategies.

Radical changes like:

• More free time for themselves and their families.
• More time and energy to work “ON” their business.
• More industry leading innovation and greater creativity.
• Better quality customer service and continuity sales.

I could go on and on, but I think you see now why we want to help small business owners remove as many barriers to outsourcing as possible.

The bottom line is that outsourcing enables you to quickly find and employ highly talented specialists to perform activities that would otherwise be impractical or cost-prohibitive to do with an in-house employee

So here’s where an internal business blog can help

In our experience coaching small business owners around the world, what they struggle with the most with is keeping a handle on their outsource agents. They want a way to manage, coordinate, and oversee both their in-house employee team and their outsource agents. And this is where an internal business blog comes to the rescue.

Online services like Kayako do make the management of outsourcing projects easier. But they often lack the collaborative aspect that is so valuable in this type of situation. Plus with most of these services, gaining access to categorized historical data is a real hassle, if it’s available at all.

But with your own password protected internal business blog you’ll gain a practical tool for collaboration and organization.

When properly structured it’s a system that will allow you to harness the full power of outsourcing and avoid many of the common management and communication challenges associated with outsourcing.

When you apply business blogging software in this way you’ll make management, coordination, and historical tracking a relative breeze. And at the same time you’ll provide a collaborative online environment that keeps communication and creativity flowing in an organized manner.

Set a 30-day goal to learn more about outsourcing and get coached on how you can use it to increase your both your profits and your free time. Then start harnessing the full power of outsourcing by creating a well structured internal business blog.

When you put this team to work for you, you’ll put yourself on the fast track to business growth and open up more free time at the same time!

John-Paul Micek
Click-and-Mortar Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club
http:/www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

© Copyright 1999-2005 by RPM Success Group ®, All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without the express written consent of RPM Success Group ® is prohibited. You may use this article/post in part with an active trackback, or in it’s entirety as an RSS feed without previous permission, so long as it is published with the full authors tag and copyright notices. Call RPM Success Group toll free at 888-334-8151 for offline reprint permissions, or by email editor@rpmsuccess.com.