Ingenio: Blogs Help


	Ingenio Blogs Help

	Blogging Can Benefit Your Business on Ingenio Set Up Your Blog Manage and Update Your Blog Settings: Tools and Features Ingenio Blogs Homepage and Your Blog on Ingenio Blogging Can Benefit Your Business on Ingenio If you are an advisor with a listing on Ingenio, we provide a free solution for you to publish a blog. It is our goal that blogs become an integral part of the total offering on Ingenio for both advisors and customers; for advisors to express themselves and connect with customers by sharing ideas, lessons, and observations; for customers to explore and learn about advisors on Ingenio. You might think of your blog as an extension of your listings on Ingenio. What Is a Blog? According to an entry in Wikipedia: The term "blog" is derived from "Web log". A blog is a user-generated web site in which entries are made in journal style and displayed in reverse chronological order. Blogs typically provide information and commentary on subjects of interest to the blogger; related to one's personal experience, profession, and philosophy. The ability for the readers of a blog to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are part of a wider network of social media. We'll focus here on the commercial benefits of publishing your blog on Ingenio, but keep in mind that your own blog may have no greater purpose than the enjoyment you derive from self expression…and that's fine with us. Before we describe the role that we think blogs can play in your efforts to market the services you offer on Ingenio, let's start with an overview of several subjects that we think are relevant to this discussion: Reach: Together we put great effort into reaching new customers. We invest in advertising and partnership programs across the top portals, search engines, affiliate programs and elsewhere. You might feature your listings on Ingenio and place your call button on web pages and in emails for customers to contact you. Through these efforts we reach an audience of users who are interested in the services we offer. New Customer Conversion: Only a small percentage of the users we reach will click on an ad or call button and go on to make a purchase. Most users don't click on an ad; some click but don't make a call; others make a free trial call but don't purchase; and so on. Some of the users who don't take an action the first time will return later to make a purchase. We all take steps to increase the likelihood that contact with a prospective customer will lead to a paid transaction. Customer Retention: We also put great effort into encouraging customers to make repeat purchases with us. We start by providing customers with high-quality service; we give them offers (e.g. free minutes); we communicate with them via email and postal mail; we personalize their experience on Ingenio with My Favorite Advisors. Let's explore how these areas of our business can be impacted by an active community of advisors on Ingenio publishing blogs that users enjoy reading for entertainment, information, and insights. Blogging for Reach: Blogs enable you to reach an audience that is interested in your services. Community: All advisors on Ingenio have listings that are designed to provide users with essential information about an advisor's service offering to facilitate phone and mail transactions. The format and content of listings tend to be relatively static with limited opportunities to engage the user with fresh ideas. Blogs can be an extension of listings that will enable advisors and users to engage one another though fresh content that will encourage users to visit, explore, and interact. There is a home page for blogs on Ingenio with featured posts, most viewed posts, most commented posts, and more. Syndication: There are many web sites that seek quality editorial content to program their sites, and in exchange they provide advertising opportunities. We plan to make the blog content available to partners and affiliates in exchange for promoting those advisors who publish blogs. You will receive attribution alongside any content that you make available for syndication through Ingenio and its partners. Your blog will be RSS-enabled, which means that users will have the ability to subscribe to your blog and get your latest posts through an RSS reader or a web page that they've personalized, for example on Google/Yahoo/MSN. RSS makes it easy for you to reach users in a new way on a regular basis without requiring them to visit Ingenio.com or check their email. Note that users typically subscribe to get feeds of blogs that are regularly updated with quality content. Search engines: Your blog will be indexed by search engines and displayed in search results. If a user searches on a topic/keyword that you write about in your blog (particularly if it's a unique term/subject) then it's possible for your blog to be found in search and displayed as one of the top results. We expect that you'll explore some interesting topics in your blogs that will get picked up in search results. Blogging for Conversion: Your blog can get the conversation started with prospective customers: Distinction and Reputation: Along with the feedback and ratings you get on your listings, you can also distinguish yourself and build your reputation in the community through your blog. A user who appreciates your blog will be more likely to take the next step and purchase your services. Your call button and/or email offering will be displayed prominently alongside your blog posts to encourage users to contact you. Configure your blog to allow users to comment on your posts, and let the conversation flow. The most viewed blog posts and blog posts that receive the most comments will be featured on the blogs home page. A Reason to Take a Second Look: Many users don't make a purchase right after they see our ad or try the service. Some users seek something different than what they found previously; or perhaps they just weren't ready to make a purchase at that time. Blogs add a new dimension to our community – fresh content that engages users - and will give users more reasons to return and therefore more opportunities to make a purchase over time. Blogging for Retention: Another Reason to Return: You know what interests your customers. Your blog represents a new way for you to communicate with them and build your relationship. Your blog offers customers a reason to visit anytime to find out what their favorite advisor is writing about. Stay in touch via RSS: Just as non-customers can subscribe to advisor blogs on Ingenio, we think customers will be even more likely to subscribe to the RSS feed of their favorite advisor. Blogging and RSS are a powerful combination enabling you to easily reach out to your customers regularly to share interesting information and insights that can lead to more calls and more customers connecting with you. Here are some suggestions along with a few basic ground rules and additional information to consider as you prepare to blog: Your blog is free with your listing. You will have one blog for your account. Attribution. We will promote blogs through our own web sites and related services and will make your blogs posts available to partners for featuring on their web sites. You will receive attribution in the form of your member name and/or links to your listing alongside any blog content that appears on Ingenio or partner/affiliate sites. If you already have a blog, you can blog with us too. Post your blog with us, and benefit from engaging our community. Blog regularly. Your audience wants to hear from you. Regular posting by a significant number of advisors will increase the likelihood that blogs become a thriving new ecosystem of the Ingenio community. Enable comments. You'll have the ability to easily configure your blog to allow comments from other users. You may moderate comments if you choose. Enable RSS. We encourage you to enable RSS on your blog so that users can get a feed of your latest posts on their personalized pages. We intend to promote blogs as a complement to your paid services for the purpose of growing your business. Blogs will not replace other marketing programs. Blogs should not replace personal interaction between you and your customers. An effective blog will complement and promote your paid service offering. We don't expect you would answer personal questions in blogs. We will not tolerate the use of blogs to disparage an advisor on Ingenio or to make references to individual customers or inappropriate content. In the footer of all posts, you'll see a Report This link which is an anonymous way to report to the PlayFair Team a post that is not adhering by the rules. When you create a blog and/or make a comment, you agree to the Terms of Use. We encourage you to start blogging and learn how it can benefit your business. Blogs represent one additional component of our service that will help unlock the full potential of our community. Return to top Set Up Your Blog Create Your Blog If you are an advisor on Ingenio and have an active listing, then you can publish a blog on http://blogs.ingenio.com for free and create your personal blog. Just sign into your Ingenio advisor account, go to "My Account" and under Advisor Center, you'll see a section called: Blogs. Click on the "Create My Blog" link and it will take you through the process of setting up your blog. It's a fast & easy two-step process. Personalize and Configure Your Blog Settings First you'll choose the title of your blog and a brief general description then you'll have the opportunity to select a theme (design) for your blog. You'll be able to edit any of this information and modify your settings even after you've created your blog. Remember to click "Save" after you make changes to your blog or blog settings. Title and Description Give your blog a title and a description. Consider using your member name and specific keywords to describe the subject matter of your blog. Try to make it memorable and also something that a user would find when using a search engine. Also included in this section for you to personalize: About Me Select a thumbnail photo from one of your listings to display on your blog. Select a listing to display your call button and/or payment mail button alongside your blog. Blog Theme: Select the theme or design of your blog. We currently offer 40 different versions to choose from. Your Blog URL & Promotional URL Anyone can view your blog by visiting your personal blog URL at: http://blogs.ingenio.com/YourBlogName Access your blog Your blog is accessible when you are signed into your Ingenio Advisor account. Go to "My Account" and under Advisor Center, you'll see a section called: Blogs. Your blog can be accessed when you click on the "My Blog" link Are you ready to create your blog? Sign in to your account and start today. Return to top Manage and Update Your Blog You must be logged into your Ingenio account in order to access the tools and features available to manage your blog and create posts. Once signed in, go to your blog and find the "Common Task" section and click on "New Post" or "Control Panel". From the Control Panel, you'll have access to all the tools and features to manage and update your blog including: Common Tasks New Posts This is the link you'll use to publish content and images on your blog. Create the title and body content of your posts with options for text editing and inserting images and links. To insert an image, click on the image icon in the header. Enter a URL where the image is hosted. If you don't have a URL, then you may use a photo sharing company, like Flickr or Snapfish, to host your images. Note when entering in the URL of the image, make sure you right click on the image to obtain the correct URL of that photo only and not the page URL. Options Tab Categories – If you've created categories for your posts, then you may assign the post to one of your categories. Creating categories keeps your blog posts organized and helps readers find posts relevant to them (learn more). Post Date – This allows you to schedule a date and time to publish a post in the future. Advanced options Tab Is this post published – This will default to "Yes". You might choose "no" in order to publish at a later date. Allow Replies/Comments – This will default to "Yes". You may override the default setting for an individual post. Comment Moderation – This will default to "Only anonymous comments require approval". You may override the default setting for an individual post. Review Comments If you've configured your blog to accept comments from readers, this is where you can access all the feedback/comments from your readers. You'll have the ability to view, filter, group, delete, edit comments and view trackbacks. Manage Content Posts This will be your main area to manage your published and unpublished posts. Posts will all be listed in chronological order by date, and you can filter them by date, category and publish status and view, edit, or delete them. Reports Overview: From this page you'll be able to monitor Views, Aggregate Views, Comments, Published date & time. Detailed report: If for example, you have 4 views, you can click on the number and you'll be directed to the Referrals report. Here you can view the tracking url, hits, and can set up a way to view the referring url by creating a trackback. Trackbacks are creating by clicking on the "create trackback" link and clicking "ok". What's a trackback? According to Wikipedia: Trackbacks are used to facilitate communication between blogs; if a blogger writes a new entry commenting on, or referring to, an entry found at another blog, and both blogging tools support the TrackBack protocol, then the commenting blogger can notify the other blog with a "TrackBack ping"; the receiving blog will typically display summaries of, and links to, all the commenting entries below the original entry. This allows for conversations spanning several blogs that readers can easily follow. Categories If you plan to post on many different topics, then creating categories may help you organize your blog posts in a way that will help your readers find and read them most effectively. Readers can subscribe to one category via RSS feeds, in addition to your whole blog. An example of how categories could be used would be a relationship advisor who creates category topics for Single Women, Single Men, Married Couples, and Divorced. Comments From here you'll have access to all the feedback/comments from your readers. You have the ability to view and filter comments and, depending on your settings, you'll have options to delete and edit comments and view trackbacks. You can configure your blog to allow comments from Ingenio members only, anonymous users or no comments. (learn more about settings for comments) Return to top Settings: Tools and Features Advanced Post Settings These are settings that primarily affect the way in which users can interact and access your posts and related comments. By setting the options in the Override/Globals tab you can modify the default value of post-level settings. Default Tab Allow Replies/Comments- This will default to "Yes" but you can click on "No" and SAVE your request. (learn more about the benefits of allowing comments) Comment Moderation: The default is set to publish comments immediately. You can choose to review comments, which means no comment will be published without your approval first. Global Override Tab Allow Anonymous Users to Comment - This will default to "YES". "Anonymous User" is defined as a user who is not signed into their Ingenio account or does not have a Ingenio account yet. Comment Day Limits: The default is set to always allow comments. You can specify a date range for comments from the first post date. Syndication Settings: Manage the way in which your blog posts can be shared and syndicated. By enabling syndication, you allow users to subscribe to feeds of your blog posts that they can get through their personalized pages for instance on Yahoo!, Google, MSN and through news readers. (learn more about the benefits of RSS) Enable RSS Syndication – default to yes Enable RSS Comments – default to no Enable Atom Syndication - default to yes Return to top Ingenio Blogs Homepage and Your Blog on Ingenio Access to Your Blog by Users Your customers and new users will be able to access your blog through the following ways on Ingenio. Ingenio "My Account" Section Link under My Favorite Advisors Advisor expanded listings page (on left navigation). Advisor Ingenio homepage link Ingenio Blogs Homepage – This will be the main page for blogs that are being published by Ingenio advisors. As the blogging community on Ingenio develops and quality content emerges, we plan to promote this page from Ingenio.com, in email we send to customers, and possibly partnership links. Return to top Ingenio Blogs Homepage You can access this page by going to the URL, http://blogs.ingenio.com , or by clicking on "blogs" in the header breadcrumb when you are on your blog. For example, Ingenio.com > blogs > my blog The main sections of this page are built to promote those that are active and engaging readers in the following areas: Latest Posts Most Commented Most Viewed Return to top



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