I discover new blogs all the time, written by smart small business owners and marketers who understand that the world is changing and that their marketing tactics need to change with it.

I also see lots of mistakes, or things left unfinished. Here are a few tips to think about as you start down the path of blogging for your small business:

1. Do you have a Contact Form integrated into your blog or company website? This is the best way to capture leads and allow people who are interested in more information about you and the products and/or services you offer to contact you. Plus, it allows you to not only build a lead database but also to track your conversions.

2. Do you feature “Connect With Us” buttons that are easy to spot? If your business has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or elsewhere, by allowing your blog readers and/or website visitors to easily see and click those buttons, you encourage them to be a part of the communities you are building on those social media networks. Doesn’t that just make sense?

3. Do you utilize social sharing buttons, prominently displayed on your blog? I’m a fan of having sharing buttons at the top of each blog post and also at the bottom. If you don’t make it easy for your readers to share your content, guess what – they won’t! And isn’t that the whole point of the content you are creating — the fact that you’d love for it to be shared? And by the way, I’m also a big fan of the Apture toolbar, which is located at the top of a page – check it out on this blog – their stats are amazing and their customer service out of this world.

4. Comments! Comments are one of the most important elements of a blog and I find many blogs don’t allow them. A reader who cares enough about what you’ve written to leave a comment is a reader that you WANT. Don’t leave off this important element of your blog – and don’t forget to respond to all comments that your readers leave, even if they are comments that disagree with you.

5. Do you invite your readers to subscribe to your blog by BOTH an RSS feed and by Email? Email is still the most popular platform there is, so when you assume that people will prefer an RSS feed over an email subscription, you are sometimes making a fatal error. Do you have any idea how many of your readers and potential readers have no idea what an RSS feed is? Trust me, there are many. Adding an email subscription option is critical. And, guess what, it’s MY personal preference, too!

These are just five tips – and things I see often that new small business bloggers forget and/or overlook. There are many more great ideas and tips – and if you have some, we would all love to hear them. So go ahead, leave a comment. And, while you’re at it, subscribe to this blog – you know you wanna.

I have been vocal about my resolve to integrate video into my blogging efforts and the last time I wrote about this quest, many of you were, too. I met Steve Garfield last year at Jeff Pulver’s 140Characters Conference in LA and we’ve been friends ever since. Mostly (private joke). Oh, and when Newsweek calls a guy “one of the web’s more beloved video bloggers,” I’m thinking that I’m not the only one who thinks he’s peachy.

Steve’s new book ‘Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business’ recently came out and if, like me, you want to do more with video, you need to quit fooling around, buy the book and dive in.

Garfield’s book is filled with tips and information that is valuable to both veterans in the world of video and newbies like me. And, for marketing your small business online, there’s really not a better tool out there. It’s down-to-earth, easy to digest and a quick read. I’m not done with it yet, and when I am, I’ll write more. What I can tell you is that it contains tips and tactics on subjects like what cameras to buy, best practices when it comes to lighting, recording and shooting and editing (which was the hardest part for me), and much, much more. Trust me on this one. Follow Steve on Twitter, buy his book, once you buy it read it (always the hard part for me!) and get going.

And my own personal message when it comes to vlogging – get over being perfect. Few of us are perfect in real life, so why expect that you will be on video? My necklace is crooked, my hair could always use a good brushing, and I’ll always look and sound goofy. But then, aren’t we all our own harshest critics? So get over that, buy Steve’s book, read it and send us both a link to your first vlog post – I can’t wait!

It’s Suppose To Matter. It Use To Matter. It Still Matters.

So, reading that tagline really makes you want to hire me, doesn’t it? Because, clearly, you know that I can’t spell. And clearly, you also know that I don’t care about accuracy.

Wow! Sure makes me want to hire someone. An agency. A freelancer. A social media “guru.” And, maybe not so clearly, you know that if I spend this much attention to detail to my own blogging endeavors that, surely, I’ll focus at least as much on your projects – you know, the work you’re paying me to do for you.

This is a rant. I apologize, but it can’t be helped! I just read a blog post from someone whom I admire. A young man, making his way in the world of advertising, an up and coming writer, a blogger who’s been identified as producing one of the Top 200 Social Media Blogs. The only problem – he can’t spell to save his life. Even worse, he doesn’t care. Once, because I do truly like him a lot, I mentioned that he had made some horrific errors and suggested he correct them and then send me a link, so that I could be a good friend and publicize the link and, wow, maybe even send him some business. You know what he wrote back? “Sorry, I know I can’t spell, but it’s really not that big of a deal.”

And you know what? I never, ever linked to his blog again. You see, I’m a bit old-fashioned (apparently) and accuracy DOES matter. Knowing the difference between “your” and “you’re” is a big deal to me and using them appropriately matters. Knowing how to spell words like “supposed” and “iced tea” and “used” — all of which often have a “d” on the end that was apparently never taught in English books others grew up reading – well, it matters to me. I was raised in a business world where our mantra was and is that every single thing you do, every bit of work product you generate, you should be proud enough of it to sign your name on it, frame it and hang it on the wall. And if that makes me an old geezer, so be it. And, while this Baby Boomer and other Boomers I know can certainly learn a few things from our young Gen Y friends, methinks that you guys can learn a few things from us as well. Like caring enough to get it right. And paying enough attention to your work product to even know the difference.

My clients hire me because I’m a pain in the neck. I scrutinize every single piece of collateral material or blog content or newsletter content, website or print ad – it matters not what it is, my eagle eye is trained on every single thing we produce. I’m the final checkpoint, the person who says “this is the best it can possibly be, it is perfect, let’s roll” and, as a result it’s my neck on the line. My neck, my reputation, my credibility. Call me silly, but those things matter to me.

I absolutely understand a writer making an occasional mistake. That’s NOT what this post is about. The occasional typo or use error is certainly going to happen from time to time. But there’s a difference between a mistake slipping in every now and then and flat out not knowing the difference between right and wrong. Like not knowing that when you use the phrase “Baby Boomers” that you don’t use an apostrophe in the word “Boomer’s” is just plain wrong. Writing a whole blog post about the concept of parallelism and MISSPELLING the word that is the subject of the post – unconscionable. Using a phrase like “your right” and not knowing how ridiculously wrong it is is … well, I hate to be harsh, but it’s really unforgiveable.

I’m really not a nutcase. But, I am a huge believer in knowing what you do do well and knowing what you don’t – and having the cajones to admit that. Me, I don’t do numbers – that’s why I have an accountant. I don’t do SEO, that’s why I have a business partner who is a genius at SEO. And I don’t program DVD players, my iPod or mess with anything of that nature – I cajole one of my kids into doing it for me. So if your excuse is that you can’t spell and you don’t want to learn, wise up and hire a damn proofreader. In the big scheme of things, isn’t your credibility worth at least that?

Here’s the lesson: if the best work product you can produce when you’re marketing yourself (oh, and isn’t that what a blog essentially does – market YOU?) … is sloppy, then what kind of work product can your clients expect you to produce for them? And do you think they buy the justification that “Oh, that’s just a blog post, spelling has never been my strong point, and I just don’t think it really matters.” Do you really think that sells? If you do, I’ve got some totally terrific swampland in Florida that I’d like to talk with you about – right away! Oh, and you can whiten your teeth while we talk about it.