I just love seeing how others explain what podcasting is and how they reference my breakfast seminar in the process. These 3 examples are ways you can blog about an event or affiliate program you’re a part of and still give value to your blog readers.

Take a look at the examples below:

• Mike Aoki, a speaker and a long time friend, recently blogged about my upcoming breakfast seminar in Toronto. He states that true experts help to demystify a process and not try to impress using industry buzzwords. What do you think? Visit Mike’s blog and leave a comment about the role of experts.
• Dina Giolitto, a copywriter who writes alot of my own copy, recently blogged about my breakfast seminar and talked about her growing discomfort with affiliate programs. Do you agree? If so, pop by her blog and leave your thoughts about affiliate programs.
• Andrew Ballenthin, a new blogger and recent client, also blogged about my breakfast seminar, but did so in a very subtle way. He wrote a post on why he thinks podcasting is the new direct marketing, then inserted a link to my seminar in the last paragraph in his post. What do you think? Is podcasting the new direct marketing or is it much more than that? Post your comments on Andrew’s blog.

So, these 3 are just some of the ways you can talk about your products and services on your blog and still give value to those who read it.

Can you spot the best practices in the 3 examples above? What other tactics can you suggest on how to promote a product or service on your blog without overselling?

About a month ago, I met with someone over coffee who was gung ho about blogging, podcasting and all walks of social media. I loved his enthusiasm, gave him some advice and within a week, he got his blog up and running.

I was quite pleased that he grasped things so quickly and equally pleased that he got a few posts up. He even ran a contest to get his clients, prospects and those in his network to read his blog. A very clever to build traffic.

Then, it took a turn for the worst.

He wrote up an article about podcasting, mentioned me and then started to email me at least twice a week for a return link to his blog.

This has now been going on for about 3 weeks.

I shared with him that I could mention his blog, but I had to figure out how mentioning his blog on mine would be of benefit to my readers. He gave me some ideas on how I could position his blog on my own, but I didn’t like any of his ideas. They were just too self-serving for my taste.

I asked the Twitterverse how I should handle this and here’s a list of replies:

Thank you ladies! Much appreciated.

My advice to new bloggers? Don’t become a link hound. Just because you mention someone on your blog doesn’t mean you can bug the person to death to return a link to you. It just doesn’t work that way.

If I enjoyed what I read and it fits into the theme and content of my own blog, I’ll link back. That’s why it’s called love. Linking is supposed to be an enjoyable experience.

I wonder if The Blog Squad could weigh in with some resources on blogging etiquette, specifically surrounding the issue of reciprocal links?

I got an email this morning from Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type and Typepad blogging systems. Apparently, they’ve made some cool changes and one of them directly impacts podcasting.

Over the past 3 years, the only blogging platform I’ve recommended for podcasting is Wordpress. I tried to add podcasting to Typepad and it was so difficult. I had to rejig this and rejig that and at the end of the day, I still had to use a flash player from another service within Typepad just to make my audio file visible and playable in my post.

Fast forward to today and it appears that Typepad has finally woken up. There’s a plugin that enables you to add podcasting easily to Movable Type. I’m going to poke around Typepad and provide a screencast of what I see. Maybe, there’s hope for Typepad afterall.

Hey Andy! Maybe Six Apart could use the advice from a podcasting expert? Let them know that I can help.

Update: Bryne, the creator of the podcasting plugin for Movable Type, let me know that his plugin is only for Movable Type. As I re-read my last paragraph, I can see there’s a bit of confusion. So, let me just clarify. Although both Movable Type and Typepad are made by Six Apart, both are different blogging platforms. There’s a podcasting plugin for Movable Type, as I noted above. So far, I haven’t seen one for Typepad. So, I’m going to investigate whether or not there’s a podcasting plugin for Typepad. It’s been 2 years since I’ve used Typepad, so I’m going to take a peek. Anyone willing to create a guest account for me on their Typepad account so I can poke around?

I’ve been enjoying a computer and Internet free week. I’m kind of proud that I was only tempted to go online once on Wednesday and that was all of one hour just to grab a phone number to call a colleague and approve some blog comments.

It’s Friday and I am continuing to enjoy this break. I won’t be online again until Monday. Then, it’s full steam ahead, tying up some loose ends from the Social Media Telesummit and planning my next program, Social Media Mastery and starting my breakfast seminars on Podcasting for Profit.

Something in my feed reader prompted me to post to my blog today. It was a post by Janet Barclay. You probably don’t know who she is and that’s okay. You see, Janet did something 2 years ago that has drastically changed her life.

After hearing me speak at the Professional Organizers in Canada AGM in October 2006, Janet took on my challenge. She was one of 2 professionals organizers in a room of 150 who stepped out of their comfort zone and launched a blog. She’s enjoying this experience and hopes to grow her audience in 2008.

I’m happy to have helped so many people, including Janet Barclay who is using a blog to break out of her shell and build her business online. Or John Molendyk who heard me speak at an event in June 2006 and launched a blog to chronicle his mother-in-law’s struggle with cancer.

Over coffee last Christmas, John shared with me how touched he was that strangers were leaving comments on his blog to share their comments and feedback. He found this sense of community comforting while dealing with his mother-in-law’s illness.

This to me is so amazing. People who are using their blogs, not just to blog, but to tell their stories. Ramon Williamson, who provided the closing keynote at the Social Media Telesummit, gave the best definition of social media that I have heard to date. He said:

“Social media is collaborative storytelling accelerated by technology.”

While social media is being used to make money, build brands and generate leads, it’s the storytelling that will build communities. This has always been my goal - to teach business people how to use social media to build communities where stories can be shared. 

My question to you - How can I help you tell your story? What information should I share on this blog that will benefit you and your business? Should I review tools? Should I provide step by step video tutorials? What is your biggest question about podcasting and social media? What do you want to see here? Leave your comments below. 

I’m just a month away from celebrating my 2 year anniversary of being gainfully self-employed. It hasn’t been easy, but anything worth having usually isn’t. It takes failures, victories and alot of risk to operate a business. When the anniversary date rolls around, I’m going to share some entrepreneurial advice with you.

In the meantime, I want to answer a question from a young woman, let’s call her Faith, who sent me an email asking the following:

“I just listened to your podcast on being disruptive and I am so tempted to get out of this box (my job) that I got into, but my faith is weak. I am afraid that the first of the month will come and I will not be able to pay rent, or pay my cell phone bill etc. What advice can you give to one who is in a box that is essentially paying the bills and putting food on the table?”

My advice?

More on How to Start a Business Without Going Broke

The day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States is called Black Friday. On this day, consumers enjoy steep discounts and huge bargains on many items.

I decided that I too would offer a steep discount on some products that I know will help you launch a podcast with confidence. I took the top 5 questions asked during the virtual book tour and matched them with products from my vault.

It’s all available in a neat little bundle that I’m called the Black Friday Podcasting Bundle. Here’s the five questions that I answer:

• If I’m Not an Expert, Should I Podcast?
• How Can I Develop a Podcast that People Want to Hear or See?
• What’s the Best Way to Record My Audio Podcast?
• What Do I Podcast About?
• How Do I Get Started With Podcasting?

To find out more about this bundle, click here. The excitement starts on November 23, 2007 at 12:01am EST.

Chris Brogan (pictured left) is a geek who doesn’t focus on the geek stuff. Instead, he offers tips on his blog on how to build a community and build rapport using social media. Like my friend Donna Papacosta says about Chris:

“Chris Brogan’s blog is always fresh and insightful. He generates at least 10 ideas each day before most of us finish our coffee.”

So true and Chris recently put together a list of 100 topics he hopes you blog about. I pulled out a few from his list that will be pertinent to those who read my blog. Here are few things to blog or podcast about if you’re stuck:

More on Content Ideas for Your Blog or Podcast