After an enlightening conversation yesterday with a local restauranteur, I came away amazed at the difficulty and expense endured by restaurant owners and managers when it comes to simply staying alive. Thousands of dollars spent monthly on restaurant advertising – thrift ads, coupons, fliers. And the attitude that if they don’t do it, they perish.

I explained to this gentleman that his best advertiser was the person who left his restaurant and went to 10 of their local friends to rave about their experience, and he heartily agreed…word of mouth is king. So why was he not hiring writers to come in, experience his restaurant, and advertise for him?

His answer?

I wouldn’t know where to look for them, even if I could afford to hire them.

Yep, one of those exciting moments for a geek like me.

Business2Blogger is an fantastic vehicle for restaurant advertising. Why? Because using Bloggers to promote your restaurant is an extremely inexpensive and effective way to create a local buzz around your local eatery! Don’t forget, B2B has a Blogger database of well over 6500 writers across the US, so finding you Bloggers in most major US Cites, Canada, the UK and Australia is a piece of cake.

How could my new friend use Business2Blogger?

• He runs his eat-and-write opportunity on The Job Board.
• Offer Bloggers a free meal (and maybe one for their date?) in return for a written review of your restaurant on their Blog,
• And ask them to promote it on Facebook and Twitter!
• The Blogger leaves and tells all their local friends all about their meal.
• So what did that cost my friend? The wholesale cost of the food they ate?

How shall we describe this restaurant marketing tactic to people? Feed-a-Blogger? Eat-and-Write? We have had people promote restaurants in this way in the past, and our Bloggers always get excited about reviewing a new local dining spot!

Is it just me that believes this to be a no-brainer?!

Or maybe I’m just hungry…

Are you a Blogger that has restaurant contacts? Send them to B2B!!

Questions: More Info Here, or Contact Us.

No good things go off without a hitch, right?  At least that is what we are telling ourselves over here!

We have discovered a problem in creating Blog Profiles on our new job board this morning.  Upon creating your blog profile, you will likely see this message:

You have a non-active profile in our database.

Our developer is working on this right now!  Our hopes are that there  might be a setting he can click to activate those profiles.  (Thinking positive, thinking positive…)

Here is a work around that you are welcome to use:

Log in to your Account:

http://jobs.business2blogger.com/users/index.cfm

Click on My Blog “Resume”

Create a second profile and delete the first (non-active) one by clicking on the Create New Profile button.

Your second profile should save correctly and you can delete the first one.

Unfortunately, this problem didn’t come up in our testing so we are hoping to fix it super fast!  You are also welcome to wait until we have a solution from our developer.  We will update you as soon as we know something more!

Thanks so much for your patience!

Dearest Business2Blogger Bloggers.

It’s been a long road.

But that road has finally brought us to a place where Brands and Bloggers can meet… effortlessly.

Blogger Outreach. Social Media Matchmaking. Whatever you want to call it, B2B today announce the long awaited improved format for bringing you together with brands that need your voices.  Today we leave all Blogger Email issues behind, and introduce to you to a new Business2Blogger.

B2B is now a “Job Board”. With a twist. Businesses will be able to post their jobs for you to view at any time. Each Job runs for 10 days on the Board, and you sign up for the ones that are a great fit for your blog. The business views your submissions, and decided which of the bloggers they want to work with.

So what makes this special? Unique?

Blogger Accounts – Each Blogger with have their own account, and you can create profiles for up to 3 of your Blogs. That means you will be able to decide which of your Blogs to submit for each Job!

One-Click Submission – Due to the new Blogger account system, it is incredibly easy to submit for a job. No more filling out a form for each job. Whew!

Real-time Stats – We now link in directly to several Blog metrics (Like Twitter, Alexa and Klout) to pull your scores in for you. Now as you improve your blog, your Job submissions will automatically reflect it!

Job Agents – Either hook directly into our RSS feed, or get email alerts of jobs that you are interested in. Now you’ll be notified immediately if a Job listing fits your blog, or if there is a Blogger event near you!

Here’s what you will need to do:

1. Go to http://Business2Blogger.com (you’ll notice that it’s all new!)
2. Create your new blogger account.
3. IMPORTANT!!  —->  Create your blog profile(s).
4. Check out the Job Board, and submit for whichever Jobs suit your Blog!
5. To set up a Job Agent, log in to your account, click on “Job Agents”, and follow the instructions. Now you’ll never miss an opportunity.

We hope you love our changes.

Jay, Shauna and Holly

Business2Blogger.com

One of the best things about having your own blog is that it is YOURS. Your content, your thoughts, your direction. It is all about your vision, your ideas, and your concepts. However, we all have things we are not used to or comfortable doing on our own, even if we want to tackle these projects. Luckily, there are some awesome ebooks out there that help us take control of our own blogs.

Design:

The DIY Blog Critique from Melissa of Mom Comm is a great resource for any blogger. We all want to share our thoughts and views with the world, but it can be tough to ensure that our blog is giving off the desired vibe. Luckily, Melissa takes you through a 43-point inspection ensuring you are not making any huge blog design blunders. You can read a more detailed overview here

Technical:

Many people start their blogging careers on the blogger platform. However, as their blogging careers progress, they prefer to own their content and not risk any loss with publishing it on a different platform. In addition, WordPress offers so many options that aren’t possible on blogger. So, many bloggers transfer to WordPress. As someone who has done hundreds of these, I can tell you how involved the process can be. Luckily, Sharon has put together an ebook walking you through it so you can do it yourself! Check out her How to Move from Blogger to WordPress ebook now. Bonus? You can download a preview for free.

Marketing:

Looking to market your blog? There’s an awesome FREE resource called DIY Marketing SEO and Copywriting Ebook. It’s a collection of great tips and articles to take your blog to the next level. We all have brilliance to share; it’s the creativity and attention to marketing that ensures everyone sees it. Check out this awesome free guide today.

What are some of your favorite ebooks? Share links if you have them!

So you may have heard of this little thing called Facebook.

Ahem.

With more than 750 million users and growing (according to Wikipedia as of July 2011), Facebook is a social media platform a step ahead of the rest. Especially when it comes to Business. In a new study shared by Inside Facebook, it was found that “by advertising to Facebook fans instead of non-fans, advertisers can reduce the acquisition cost of registrations by 44%, event signups by 33%, and purchases by 15%. These results of a 4.1 billion ad-impression, thirteen-client test”.

I suppose you’re ready to start your page now, right? Below, find resources and tutorials to help you establish your business and/or blog on Facebook.

Getting Started with Facebook

Do you run a business and know you need to use Facebook, but are not sure where to start? Then the Social Media Examiner’s Facebook 101 for Business: Your complete Guide is the resource for you.

Need to set up that fan page? Try using PageModo, an awesome resource that helps you make a custom Welcome page without being a coding guru. Gigi from Kludgy Mom takes you through the process step by step in How to Glam up your Blog’s Facebook page (bonus? Works for businesses too!)

Bloggers often underestimate the value of an engaging Facebook page. MomComm discusses Six non-spammy ways for bloggers to engage with other Facebook Fan Pages in this great article for bloggers.

You may invoke Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies on your blog, but do you do it for Facebook as well? Branding Personality talks about Five Key SEO Strategies for every Facebook page.

Facebook Ads Resources

Facebook ads- we all see them, and the suggestions to use them. Mashable’s Facebook Ads: 5 Tips for Success can help guide you in managing reasonable expectations from using these ads.

The Social Media Guide also gives great suggestion in Using Facebook Ads to Promote your Business even without a huge budget.

Interested in the metrics behind Facebook ad targeting? This article shows that older users are more likely to click on ads while younger users simply “like”.

Finally, maybe you should not use Facebook ads. Are Facebook Ads for All Businesses? takes a look at why your ads may be ineffectual.

If you are a brand new blogger, chances are you are doing it wrong.

Yes, I said it. In fact, even if you have been blogging for awhile, you are probably still doing a lot wrong. Luckily, the blogging world is rich in resources. One such resource is the brand new e-book from Melissa of MomComm.  (Her background is in marketing communications- marcomm, momcomm. See how smart she is?). Not only does she blog at Adventuroo and the hugely successful MomComm, but she is also the Brand Building Contributing Editor at SITS Girls and a freelance marketing consultant.

The DIY Blog Critique eBook is a 43-point guide on making your blog all things awesome (seriously- she says so in the title). As someone who has blogged both personally and for businesses, this was a resource I was excited to dive right into. I figured there would be a tip or two that would be useful, because surely this would be geared for newbies.

Ahem.

What I thought would be a checklist overview is instead a detailed guide on everything about a blog. Broken into four main categories- prepwork, design, functionality & navigation and content, no detail is left behind. She forces bloggers to ask themselves questions such as defining their blog and their goals- specifically, no ambiguity allowed- to considering fonts, colors, and placements of every last detail on the blog. (MomComm Tip: When setting SPECIFIC goals, start with 2-5; adjust as needed).

With real statistics and numerous resources, this e-book is equivalent to spending a million hours researching online (Yes, a million. Maybe two.) For example, did you know you only have 3 seconds to make an impression when someone lands on your blog for the first time? True story. The DIY Blog Critique eBook explains in detail how not to waste it. Deeply rich in resources, you can find information and links on everything from how to choose the right colors for your blog to what size your header should be to what sidebar elements to avoid (Hint: We don’t need to know where your readers come from. A little creepy and wasted space). The e-book also covers the tricky question about advertising and even delves into the scary world of SEO- in ENGLISH.

There are a million questions to cover when establishing an awesome blog. Determining what pages to include, whether or not to buy your own domain name (yes, you should- Melissa says so and so do we) and over a hundred links to articles and eBooks, are all covered in this DIY Blog Critique eBook.

So, no that you are questioning what is wrong with your blog, simply click on this link (affiliate link!) to purchase the ebook now. Right now, the introductory price is only $14- yes, $14. (Um, quick buy it because I’m about to email her that she needs to charge so much more.) She also offers a sample on her Facbeook page- head over to her Facebook page and hit “like.”

Bonus Giveaway

After you buy this amazing book, you might still want some more help. So, Melissa is offering a half hour consultation with one lucky reader! (Extra awesome if you’re a blogger? She typically only consults for businesses.)

What can you do in a consulting session?

• Ask for guidance about your site (design, content, whatever)
• Talk about blog goals and we’ll discuss ways to help you meet them
• Share ideas you may wanting to implement on your blog and we’ll discuss them from a strategic level
• Dig into how you promote your blog and learn how to kick it up a notch (or scale back areas that aren’t working)
• Ask me lots and lots of questions

To enter to win, simply leave a comment telling us what you would like to improve on your blog!

*Disclosure- I was provided a free copy of this eBook to review (and I’m so glad I was!) All thoughts and opinions are my own. Above links are affiliate links to the eBook- which you can sign up for too!

Sharing your thoughts, information, and content with the world has many benefits. Whether you blog for business or for fun, the sense of community and resources available are plenty. However, being available on the web also opens you up for the dreaded spammers. Here are a few ways to block spam from your blog.

WordPress

Akismet is one of the most popular and complete solutions for blocking spam. It comes included with most WordPress installation and you just need to register your Akismet Key to get it working. It is free for personal use and you can pay a selected fee for business. You do want to check your spam folder periodically to make sure that your readers’ comments don’t get marked for spam, but generally speaking, Akismet is pretty accurate.

Other plugins are available, like Anti Artifical Spam. Simply search the WordPress plugins and you will see many options.

Blogger

Use Akismet with Disqus or IntenseDebate. A powerful spam-blocker used for WordPress can couple with one of these comment systems to keep those spammers away.

Using Captcha and/or Comment Moderation

Captcha is an often-contested method used in the blogging world. On the one hand, incessant spam comments can be rude and downright annoying. On the other hand, chances are that you are not getting *that* many spam comments. Putting a barrier in between your readers and their ability to comment greatly reduces the chance that they will even bother. (Personal confession: I tend to get the captchas wrong, especially the hard-to-read ones. By the second time, I just give up!) I would strongly recommend using one of the above methods before using captcha or comment moderation.