Ricky’s Online Business Blog

I have a little idea for IT service providers to come together to promote your products and services using blog.

You can be selling computer hardware, doing computer repairs, setting up computer networks, providing web hosting, web design, e-commerce services, writing computer software, doing Internet marketing, teaching computer classes, or providing any other computer-related services.

But if your target customers are the SME/SMI (small and medium sized enterprises) in Malaysia, please consider this proposal.

You can’t be providing ALL computer services yourself, even Microsoft and IBM don’t.  But from the point of view of our target market, especially the less IT-savvy Malaysian businesses, these IT-related services are all just “computer stuff” to them.  So if there is a single, one-stop portal which can provide all their “computer stuff”, why not?

All of us can congregate to this neutral online blog platform.  We can write “advertorials” for our reader.  It could be some computer tips for our readers.  Of course, don’t forget to promote your services, include your contact details, and link to your web site at the end of your article.

This is like a tech and IT business blog geared towards the enterprises rather than individuals.  You build your credibility as an expert in your IT service and get customers from your blog posts.

So if you don’t already have a blog or a web site, you can consider this. It’s zero cost to you.  Just need your time to write about your area of expertise.

But if you are already blogging, why still join?  Simply because there is strength and synergy in working together.  While keep on blogging on your site, you can also copy and post your articles on this IT blog.

Anyone interested?

I was asked by a customer on how to create a blog like my RickySoo.com.  I guess I might as well post the reply here so that others can be benefited too.

First of all, this blog is not a prominent one.  There are many other blogs doing much better than mine, in terms of their business model, strategy, marketing, design, usefulness and content.

But having created a few blogs for myself and others, I guess I still qualify to give my two cents.  Below is not a step-by-step guide but just an overview.  Not only the technical side, but also the business and marketing aspects as well.  If you need any detailed information, please post your questions in the comments below.

Why you want to blog - Decide on the objective of a blog.  Is it to promote your business, sell your products, bring traffic to your main web site, be a PR channel for your business, express your opinions, earn money by blogging or anything else. Even if it is just a personal blog, you still need a “business model”.

Domain name and web hosting - Register a domain name and web hosting.  For serious blogging, don’t use free blogging service.  There are many such domain name registrars and hosting providers.  You can also consider mine at http://bizpartner.com.my.  Alternatively, if you already have a business web site, you can include your blog into it under a folder such as http://www.yourbusiness.com/blog, or a subdomain such as http://blog.yourbusiness.com.

Get WordPress - Download the free blogging software called WordPress here at http://wordpress.org/download/.  There are many other such software.  But so far WordPress is the most popular one.  Your web hosting provider, like me, may also provide a facility (such as cPanel) to install WordPress on your web server with just a few clicks of button.

Install WordPress - If you have downloaded WordPress manually, install it on your server.  Refer to the documentation at http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress.  It’s a 5-minute installation.  Basically you just need to upload the files to your server, run the install file, and then follow the instructions on screen to finalize the setup.

Tune up your blog - Login to your admin account, click “Design” to choose a user-friendly blog theme. Click “Settings” to set up various options, especially options for Discussion and Permalinks.  For a start, you should allow anyone to post comments.  You should also change the “permalink structure” from the default to another more search engine-friendly structure such as “Day and name”.

Publicize your blog - Let Google know about your blog.  You can submit your blog to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl/.  Let your friends and customers know about your blog.  Try to get other web sites to link to your blog.  Incoming links help search engines to find you, and also to better your search engine ranking.  If you have another business web site, you should put up a link there to your blog.

Blog consistently - It is one thing to set up your blog, but it’s another to run it successfully.  To make it effective, you need to make new blog posts regularly and consistently, even if it means just once a week.  In other words, you need to keep on adding (good) content into your blog so that search engines and other people can recognize it.

Review your blog - Evaluate your blog regularly to see whether it’s helping you to achieve the objective you set in the first place.  Change course, or fine tune your blog to make sure it works for you.  Close it down and restart another one if necessary.  I had two other blogs on RickySoo.com since years ago but closed them down since they were not serving any useful purpose.

More advanced options - The above is just scratching the surface.  As you use blog more often, you will naturally learn more.  Then you can consider other more advanced options such as installing useful plugins, dealing with comment spams, search engine optimization (SEO), tracking your feed readers, doing web site analytics, promoting it on social networks and so on.  But don’t worry for now.  There is a time for everything.

Have I missed out anything else important? Please correct me or add your comments if any.  Happy blogging!

I’ve been working these days to improve the domain name search service on BizPartner web site.

A domain name search service, or WHOIS service, lets you query the availability of a domain name.  If it is available, you can register it.  If it is not available, the search shows you who registered it.

It took me one whole day on Monday to revamp the previous WHOIS service.  The service is now more robust, accurate and useful. It took me another one whole day on Tuesday to make the search available for bloggers and site owners to monetize their web sites.

Being a site owner and blogger myself, I understand the dilemma on how to monetize (make money from) a blog or web site.  A business web site can sell products and services.  But how about a non-commercial one, such as many personal blogs out there?  How do they make money?

One common way is to make money from pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements such as those of Google Adsense.  You just put up some snippet of HTML code on your blog, and it turns into advertisements relevant to your content.  When your visitors click on any ad, you get paid by Google.

Another way is to sell other people’s products or services.  This is “affiliate marketing”.  You become their “affiliate”, and put up a link from your blog to their web site.  When your visitors click on the link, and buy from the supplier, you get a cut of the profit.

This is what I’m trying to do with my domain name registration service.  But instead of putting up just a link, you are given a domain name search box to be placed on your blog.  When your visitors search for any domain name, and buy any domain name within 3 months, you get a commission.

This way, it’s win-win-win for you, your visitors and me.  You provide an extra feature or service to your providers and earn money from it.  Your visitors can search for their desired domain names on your site, without going to a domain name provider’s web site. And I can get more customers referred from you.

I also think that if domain name search is ubiquitous, more people will be encouraged to have their own domain names.  Getting own domain name is also what I strongly recommend to those who want to blog.  No more using free blog address!

Look at the search box I put up on the left of this blog.  It may not look nice here, but you can change its appearance.  Find out more here on how to put up a domain name (WHOIS) search box on your blog or web site.

For those people who are infected with AIDS/HIV, what does the future hold for them?  Not much, we may think.

How shall they live while they are still alive?  Can they still live normally like you and me?  Well, if they were known by others as having AIDS/HIV, they often will face discrimination against them.

Unfortunately, social stigma is inevitable.  They are deprived of privileges and opportunities in life.  They are discriminated, ignored, forsaken.  Their lives seem gone.

Recently, I was approached by my friend in charge of Crisis Home, an non-profit organization taking care of these unfortunate people, to do something online for them.

So a blog has been set up at http://www.crisishome.org.  It serves to create awareness in the society, to dispel social stigma and misunderstandings against those with AIDS/HIV, and to communicate the message of the organization through the Internet.

It is in serving them that I had to confess and repent for my own discrimination against these people.  I’m culpable for my misunderstandings against them, including a few popular myths about HIV/AIDS.

Yes, they are infected with AIDS/HIV.  But they are still human.  There is definitely hope for them to be useful in this life, and after.

Blogging is one of the best ways to promote your business nowadays.  Are you not interested to find out more?

You can easily set up a blog for your business and take advantage of its search engine friendliness to bring in qualified prospects to your web site.  Just among many benefits of using a blog.

What if you don’t have to pay a single cent but get all these benefits from blogging?  It is not necessary for you to have a web site.  I’ll have one for you.  Zero cost!

If your business is the kind that you want to target foreigners to travel, buy properties, do business, or invest in Malaysia, please contact me here and briefly introduce your business.

I have a little idea to help you.