Marketing Issues
- Generating Qualified Leads
- Building Customer Loyalty and Referrals
- Launching a new product or service
- Finding new markets
- Making effective, presentations
- Using the Internet to beef up your marketing
- Marketing professionally with a downsized staff
- Marketing for your not-for-profit organization
Marketing Tools
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- What is a blogsite?
- What's the difference between Blogsite Basic, Standard, and Advanced?
- Can I choose the domain name for my blogsite?
- Can a blogsite have more than one weblog?
- How long does it take to build a blogsite?
- Can my weblog posts be written by more than one author?
- How long does it take for search engines like Google or Yahoo to index my blogsite?
- Can my blogsite have custom "briefing" channels?
- What are Briefings Channels?
- What are Guest Weblogs?
- Can I have links on my blogsite to my primary website?
- What are Intelligence Channels?
- Do blogsites provide support for RSS syndication?
- Do blogsites provide support for Atom and other syndication formats?
- Can my blogsite look like my own website?
- Can I add links to my weblog posts that reference other web pages and/or weblog posts?
- Can I upload photographs, images, or other documents to my blogsite?
- Are there any limits to the number of users that read my weblogs or subscribe to my blogsite through RSS newsreaders?
- Will my URLs and page titles include my own content, company name, and business brand?
- Can I publish my blogsite RSS feeds on my own website?
- Can blogsites be used for private or internal corporate use?
- Can I use my blogsite to publish podcasts?
- How do I get a Blogsite?
A blogsite is a weblog application that integrates multiple content channels (i.e., weblogs, syndicated feeds, private forums, FAQs, etc.) to address specific business requirements.
A blogsite extends the notion of a weblog to provide a broad range of features that enhance your visibility and discoverability on the Internet.
Unlike traditional weblogging tools, MySmartChannels-powered blogsites integrate multiple weblogs for your company or marketing team, as well as syndicated guest weblogs, and other information sources that increase your search rankings for hundreds, even thousands of relevant search key-phrases. Blogsites also provide an array of content aggregation services designed to provide a simple and effective way to create and maintain a formidable Internet presence.
What's the difference between Blogsite Basic, Standard, and Advanced?
All Blogsite packages leverage weblogs and content syndication technologies to increase Internet visibility within targeted market segments. The difference is primarily a matter of scale.
Advanced Blogsite sites are larger and typically produce good visibility for a larger collection of search phrases. Below is a brief summary of the main differences between the three configurations.
Blogsite Differences at a Glance
Advanced
(formerly Platinum)Standard
Basic
(formerly Gold)Authored Weblog Channels
6
3
1
Syndicated Guest Weblog Channels
9
6
3
Public Briefing Channels
9
6
3
Private Market Intelligence Channels
9
6
3
Search Engine Ranking Reports
Advanced
Basic
Basic
Site Quality Assurance Reports
Advanced
Advanced
Basic
Can I choose the domain name for my blogsite?
Yes.
By default, we create blogsites with URL's like http://myCompany.blogsite.com. We can also map your blogsite to any domain or subdomain name that you own or control, e.g., http://blog.myCompany.com, without extra charge
Can a blogsite have more than one weblog?
Yes.
Blogsites are available in three service levels.
- Level 1 service includes one authored weblog and up to three syndicated guest weblogs.
- Level 2 service includes up to three authored weblogs and up to six syndicated guest weblogs.
- Level 3 service includes up to six authored weblogs and up to nine syndicated guest weblogs.
Larger blogsite configurations are also available. Please contact us for additional details.
How long does it take to build a blogsite?
Just a few days.
Typically, once we have your completed worksheet, your blogsite is ready for publishing content in just a few days.
Can my weblog posts be written by more than one author?
Yes.
Blogsites can have multiple authors; the number of which depends on the blogsite service level. You may grant an author permissions to post content to specific weblogs or to all weblogs. In addition, as the site owner, you will have editorial rights for all weblogs.
How long does it take for search engines like Google or Yahoo to index my blogsite?
Just a few weeks .
Typically, we see new blogsites begin to generate search results within a few weeks. However, this can be accelerated by promoting your new blogsite in many ways including:
- Registering all blogsite RSS feeds on search engines like Syndic8, Feedster, and RSSFeeds.com.
- Registering your new blogsite address on traditional search engines like Yahoo, Google, and MSN Search.
- Writing interesting and provocative content that causes other webloggers to reference your posts.
Can my blogsite have custom "briefing" channels?
Yes. Briefing channels are standard features in all Blogsites .
Briefing channels are powered by Blogsite Automation Services. You can configure up to nine briefing channels using a simple web form interface. Blogsite automatically updates your briefing channels on a daily basis, ensuring your briefing channels always contain fresh and timely content
Briefing channels are like having an Internet "radar" or "clipping service" built right into your blogsite.
Blogsite Briefings is a collection of news channels, each focused on a specific subject area and updated on a daily basis. Each briefing channel contains links to articles, news stories, weblog posting, company web sites, and other interesting resources found on the public Internet based on the topics you configure in the administrative area of your blogsite. Briefing channels are very helpful in providing, fresh, focused content to your blogsite on a regular basis, which in turn, makes your blogsite more discoverable by new visitors and more valuable to returning visitors.
Each briefing channel also provides its own RSS feed. Blogsite visitors can subscribe to one or more feeds in their favorite RSS newsreader and receive daily updates about new or updated news items. For newsreaders that support OPML feeds, briefing channels also provide an OPML feed that allows visitors to subscribe to all briefing channels in a single step
Guest Weblogs are weblogs (or other content channels) that are dynamically and seamlessly syndicated into your blogsite .
Typically, a guest weblog is an existing weblog (written by someone outside your organization) that is relevant and complimentary to your business or blogsite objectives.
Can I have links on my blogsite to my primary website?
Yes.
Blogsites include a section for linking to other sites. We encourage you to link to your business home page and other places in your Web site that may be important to your Weblog readers.
Links are easily configured online and you may change them at any time.
What are Intelligence Channels?
Intelligence channels are like having a private clipping service in a secure area of your blogsite .
Like the public briefing channels, your intelligence channels are easily configured to watch for topics of interest to you and your weblog authors. These channels are automatically updated on a daily basis to provide a steady stream of new ideas to write about. You can also subscribe to these channels via RSS (or Atom) and let your newsreader bring you new ideas on a daily basis.
Do blogsites provide support for RSS syndication?
Yes. All blogsites support RSS feeds.
Blogsites also support Atom, OPML, and other standard syndication formats. Furthermore, this support extends to all blogsite channels, including weblogs, briefings channels, private intelligence channels, and the secure administrative areas of a blogsite.
Do blogsites provide support for Atom and other syndication formats?
Yes.
Blogsites include support for RSS 2.0, Atom, OPML, KlipFolio, MyST-ML, and Microsoft Smart Tags. Additional formats, including RSS 1.0, are available on request.
Can my blogsite look like my own website?
Yes. The objective of a Blogsite is to maximize your brand impressions and promotion of your business. To that end, each blogsite is styled and branded to create a presentation consistent with your business and Internet objectives.
Level 1 (formerly Gold) and Level 2 sites include a simple branding model that includes a company logo (or other graphic) and fonts and overall color scheme to match your primary website. Level 3 (formerly Platinum) sites include a more extensive branding model intended to match the overall look and feel of your primary website.
Blogsite presentation models are based on standard XSL so, ultimately, just about anything is possible in terms of site presentation. Let us know if you have specific requirements, we'd be happy to work with you.
Can I add links to my weblog posts that reference other web pages and/or weblog posts?
Yes. Blogsites support two types of linking.
First, the body of a weblog posts can contain arbitrary HTML. The built-in rich-text editor lets you easily add hyperlinks and image links to the content of your posts.
Second, you can add any number of link properties to your weblog posts. Link properties provide an easy-to-use way to create annotated references to other sites, other weblog posts, and online documents.
Can I upload photographs, images, or other documents to my blogsite?
Blogsites do not include document or picture hosting features. However, a blogsite can easily link to images and documents already hosted on a web server.
Let us know if document and picture hosting is a critical requirement for your application. We can add document hosting capabilities, but would quote that on a case-by-case basis. We'd be happy to discuss your specific requirements.
Are there any limits to the number of users that read my weblogs or subscribe to my blogsite through RSS newsreaders?
There are no limits on the number of readers or subscribers, but there are overall bandwidth limits. However, our bandwidth limitations for Blogsite are generally adequate for most business needs .
In cases where blogsite traffic grows dramatically, affordable bandwidth increases are available.
Will my URLs and page titles include my own content, company name, and business brand?
Yes.
Each blogsite is fully branded to your company. Even the syndication feeds will include your company logo. The only externally visible mention of our brand is a small a Scenario d blogsite powered by MySmartChannels link at the bottom of the blogsite.
Can I publish my blogsite RSS feeds on my own website?
Yes. In fact, we recommend that you do so .
We also recommend that you create links between your primary website and your blogsite. Such links will help users and search engines alike to discover the relationship between your sites and will, in general, enhance the overall visibility of both sites.
Can blogsites be used for private or internal corporate use?
Yes.
Blogsites can be completely secure and accessible through SSL connections. You may use blogsites for many purposes including:
- Expert advisory system
- Customer relationships
- Media relations
- Internal collaboration
- Documentation support
- Knowledge management
- Requirements management
- Idea management
The Blogsite system also provides integrated search based on each user's security context.
Contact our business development group for more details about Operational Support Blogsites.
Can I use my blogsite to publish podcasts?
Yes.
Blogsite supports Link Properties; a model for creating lists of links that are part of a blog post. Link Properties include many attributes such as title, synopsis, and URL. In addition to these basic attributes, optional MIME type and size can be added for rich media files that your post may reference, such as a podcast or video file.
The optional attributes are used to display files such as podcasts that can be played from the blog display, or downloaded in the weblog's RSS or Atom feed.
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