Tonight I am going to be talking about the benefits of blogging for your business.  Here is my handout.

1. You can update your Blog/Website yourself
2. Your blog becomes your central repository for all articles, news items, announcements and events. It’s database driven, so it’s searchable.
3. “Search-friendliness” is built into the blog.
4. Blogs are easy ways to add depth to your web site; Each blog post is indexed as a page in search engines. (just Google NJAWBO Blogging Event)
5. Your blog post title can automatically be displayed as a tweet in your Twitter account.
6. It’s easy to integrate multi-media in posts – Slideshows from Flickr; YouTube Video.
7. Your blog can be linked from your Linkedin account.
8. Drive traffic to your website/blog by including the link on a Facebook update.
9. Your blog demonstrates your expertise- good for attracting press.
10. With a blog you’ll be cool, hip, and you can now call yourself a blogger.

Resources:

• Wordpress.org   Free open source software for integrating a blog into a web site or building a standalone blog. Self hosted (company.com/company_blog); you’ll need your webmaster to accomplish this.
• Wordpress.com  Free open source hosted blogging solution not on your domain (company.wordpress.com).
• Blogger.com  Free Google hosted blogging solution not on your domain.
• Montclair Adult School; www.adultschool.org Registration begins Feb 1, 2010;  Web Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs & Small Business March 23, 2010;  Planning an Effective Web Presence for Entrepreneurs & Small Business; 2 sessions March 2, 2010 and March 9, 2010

According to a recent poll by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec. 63% of online shoppers said they did not complete a purchase because of security concerns. Here are a few tips that store owners can implement to overcome this obstacle.
1. Having credibility symbols on your web site is the first step in building trust. This includes your SSL Certificate with a live to link to your provider.
2. Also make sure you have a privacy policy on your site. Visitors want to feel confident that are going to keep their information private, especially their email address.
3. Don’t ask for any unnecessary information during the check-out process. You want shoppers to be able to check-out as quickly as possible.
4. Offer payment options like PayPal and Google Checkout. This allows visitors to pay via credit card without having to divulge their credit card information.

See our web site for more informtion about BZA’s Ecommerce and Online Store Design Solutions

Accurate Box Company, located in Paterson, New Jersey, is a national supplier of high graphics corrugated boxes. They selected BZA to help them generate new sales opportunities and interest in their company. Their custom color corrugated boxes can be found in every club store and box retailer across the country.

BZA designed a site that lets their high graphics corrugated boxes take center stage. The comprehensive site has a Markets Served section containing eight animated slide shows for each market. Photography used throughout the site consistently reinforces the quality of their work. Any prospect visiting the site will quickly find that many Fortune 500 hard goods, food, and beverage companies entrust their brand to Accurate Box.
BZA also integrated a company video into the web site. The company video, complete with player controls, downloads quickly from a video streaming server.
Through BZA’s search marketing and optimization effort Accurate Box has been able to increase their search engine traffic significantly since the web site launch. They have been able to expand their geographic reach by increasing their visibility in search results for their targeted keywords and phrases.
Accurate Box wanted to be able to update their site content to keep the site current. In order to accomplish this BZA provided a content management solution so Accurate Box can update their web site without any technical knowledge. The site is located at http://www.accuratebox.com

BZA recently launched a new website for Paradigm Packaging with headquarters in Saddle Brook New Jersey. Paradigm Packaging is a leading plastic bottle manufacturer for the vitamin, nutritional, and over the counter (OTC) drug and pharmaceutical industries. With four facilities on the East and West Coasts of the US, Paradigm manufactures and distributes high-quality plastic bottles and jars throughout the United States including Alaska and Hawaii, Central America, Western Europe, the Baltics, and China. BZA designed a web site where visitors can easily find detailed specifications of the various plastic bottles which Paradigm manufactures.

BZA provided creative direction for the product photo shoot, copy writing, editing, and online marketing services. The site also has a sample request form that facilitates the process of capturing leads into a database. According to Joe Flynn, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Paradigm Packaging he claims “I feel like we put another sales person on the road.” In the future BZA will be developing and integrating an application that will allow users to search for plastic bottles by material, style, neck finish, use, etc. or combinations of each. The site can be visited at http://www.paradigmpackaging.com/.