Choosing The Appropriate Blogging Platform For Your Needs

One of the most important decisions that you can make as a blogger is choosing which blogging platform to use. The right platform can make blogging a breeze, and an inappropriate platform can make blogging a chore.

The program you use with which to blog will be a dominant part of your blogging experience, so be prepared to put in the time to find a platform that provides a balance between a user-friendly interface and a flexible framework that allows you to make your blog look and feel unique. Finding the right platform won’t always be easy, but with a bit of thought and some research, you will be close to finding the perfect blogging platform for your needs.

Decide early in the piece what are your priorities in terms of ease of use vs. customization. Most highly customizable blogging platforms, like Moveable Type, are a bit more difficult to use than very automated platforms like WordPress.

If you are new to the relevant technology you might want to sacrifice being able to customize a background design or to integrate a unique font into your template in order to find a program that will be easy to use. Conversely, if you are a bit of a geek with knowledge of HTML or JavaScript, you could find the limitations of a user-friendly platform to be frustrating.

If you are new to the relevant technology you might want to sacrifice being able to customize a background design or to integrate a unique font into your template in order to find a program that will be easy to use. Conversely, if you are a bit of a geek with knowledge of HTML or JavaScript, you could find the limitations of a user-friendly platform to be frustrating.

Because every blogger has unique needs there cannot be a blogging platform that is the best platform. Blogging is very much about individuality, so it makes sense that there would be different platforms designed to cater for the needs of different individuals undertaking different types of projects.

However, the fact that no two bloggers need the same thing from a blogging platform could make your search for your platform a bit difficult. When reading reviews of different platforms, keep your priorities to the fore and endeavour to take into account where the reviewer is coming from. Remember, there is no such thing as the perfect platform for everybody, so look for the best platform that fits your specific criteria.

If you run a small business, you may find that the world of blogging for business owners is a world that you need to be a part of.

Blogging is a great way to get the word out to consumers about your product or services. If you are considering taking your business to the next level, think about starting a blog. At the very least, it will provide a link back to your website.

Blogging for business owners has a lot in common with other types of blogging, but has its own unique pitfalls and strengths. As a business owner the key to having a successful blog is keeping your goals clear, concise and concrete at every step.

It can be very easy to get sidetracked, especially if you are just learning all about the possibilities of blogging technology, but if you want your blog to succeed you need to stay focused. Endeavour to maintain a theme for a series of blogs before changing to a different one.

It is essential that you prepare a plan for how often you will update, how you will promote your blog and retain readers, whether you will feature photographs or video, and other aspects of your blog. Then follow that plan with the same sense of purpose that you used when you built your business.

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services
PO Box 93 Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
http://www.virtualservices.com.auExperience the Difference
http://vacertified.com/client-info/First in the World to be VA Certified (and you can benefit)
http://www.avbn.com.auAustralian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
http://a4vb.com.au/Alliance for Virtual Businesses, Australian Chapter—Supporting the Future of Business Through Innovative Ideas
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 6230 5156 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

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Blogging For Business Owners

If you run a small business, you may find that the world of blogging for business owners is a world that you need to be a part of.

Blogging is a great way to get the word out to consumers about your product or services. If you are considering taking your business to the next level, think about starting a blog. At the very least, it will provide a link back to your website.

Blogging for business owners has a lot in common with other types of blogging, but has its own unique pitfalls and strengths. As a business owner the key to having a successful blog is keeping your goals clear, concise and concrete at every step.

It can be very easy to get sidetracked, especially if you are just learning all about the possibilities of blogging technology, but if you want your blog to succeed you need to stay focused. Endeavour to maintain a theme for a series of blogs before changing to a different one.

It is essential that you prepare a plan for how often you will update, how you will promote your blog and retain readers, whether you will feature photographs or video, and other aspects of your blog. Then follow that plan with the same sense of purpose that you used when you built your business.

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services
PO Box 93 Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
http://www.virtualservices.com.auExperience the Difference
http://vacertified.com/client-info/First in the World to be VA Certified (and you can benefit)
http://www.avbn.com.auAustralian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
http://a4vb.com.au/Alliance for Virtual Businesses, Australian Chapter—Supporting the Future of Business Through Innovative Ideas
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 6230 5156 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

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Systemising Your Business – Part 3

How to Start Systemising

Start by producing procedures for your routine business tasks. These procedures are then used as work instructions for completing specific tasks; you don’t have to hand-hold someone to get them to carry them out.

To produce task procedures, the “how to” aspects, ask “How do I?”, then begin at the beginning – as suggested by the King in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

As suggested in Part 2, chart each step that is used to compile the process. That’s it, unless the steps are inconsistent. In which case it would be necessary to provide guidelines to indicate the rules to be abided by.

The whole idea of systemising in this manner is twofold.

  1. You now have a means of controlling the quality of your work, and
  2. In the event of illness for a one-person business, or other calamity, another person could easily pick up the threads and provide continuity for you.

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services
PO Box 93 Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
http://www.virtualservices.com.auExperience the Difference
http://vacertified.com/client-info/First in the World to be VA Certified (and you can benefit)
http://www.avbn.com.auAustralian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
http://a4vb.com.au/  – Alliance for Virtual Businesses, Australian Chapter—Supporting the Future of Business Through Innovative Ideas
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 6230 5156 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

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Systemising Your Business – Part 2

When you are systemising your business, and producing procedure manuals have you ever used Process Maps? Have you ever used them to systemise a client’s business?

A survey carried out some time ago produced the estimate that people carrying out administrative functions or providing services spend about 40 to 50 percent of their time dealing with waste; correcting things that are wrong, chasing down misfiled or misplaced things, querying incomplete instructions, re-inventing the wheel, and so on. These go on in even the best organised businesses.

Just imagine that you could reduce these wasteful habits in your own business. How much more productive would you be? Compiling process maps can provide an analysis of a process and highlight areas of inefficiency and waste; leading to methods to deliver improvements.

Process mapping, or flow charting, is an extremely powerful technique. It depicts, visually, how each step in a process leads to the final product or service output. It is one of the most effective improvement techniques you can use.

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services
PO Box 93 Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
http://www.virtualservices.com.auExperience the Difference
http://vacertified.com/client-info/First in the World  to be VA Certified (and you can benefit)
http://www.avbn.com.auAustralian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 6230 5156 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

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Why a Business Impact Analysis (BIA)?

Briefly it is to enable you to determine the impacts resulting from possible disasters and interruptions that could affect your business; the risks you have assessed previously.

It would also enable you to ascertain critical processes, their priority in the recovery phase, and anything dependent upon those processes so can set a goal for overall recovery

You cannot develop a strategy for your Business Continuity Plan if you cannot determine the extent of the impact on your business of risks occurring.

The purpose of the BIA is to:

  • Determine those functions of your business that are critical to its operation together with those particular processes / applications each function accomplishes.
  • Put a figure on the potential loss to you and your business for each of those processes if they cannot be conducted for a given period of time.
  • Research the probability of losing each function and assign a risk factor— low (L), medium (M), high (H) or severe (S).
    Any process rated H or S must be further evaluated in order to determine alternative strategies.
  • Finally, you need to decide upon what you consider to be an upper limit of for any outage that could be caused by the occurrence of an H or S risk function so as to reduce the effects to M or L

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services
PO Box 93 Quinns Rocks, Western Australia 6030
http://www.virtualservices.com.auExperience the Difference
http://vacertified.com/client-info/First in the World  to be VA Certified (and you can benefit)
http://www.avbn.com.auAustralian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 6230 5156 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

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