SOLAR FACTS ABOUT SOLAR FARMS IN NJ

Energy is a hot topic and these days you will hear more and more about renewable energy sources, clean energy sources ( for example: GOAL ZERO YETI 400 SOLAR GENERATOR KIT ) climate change, solar power, solar farms and related topics. Before we discuss the topic of a solar farm is is probably a good idea to consider some solar facts. We all depend on a large degree to non-renewable energy sources such as oil and gas. Whether you live in Hamilton, Middletown, Point Pleasant, Red Bank, Spring Lake or Toms River, NJ, you will use a certain amount of oil and gas.

However these traditional energy sources wont last forever and have negative impact on the environment. This means humankind is slowly being forced to consider other energy sources such as solar energy. Understanding some solar facts is important if you want to consider solar power as an alternative energy source. The sun produces vast amounts of energy and has done so for billions of years. Even though solar energy can be harvested to generate electricity, the sun only shines during the day and some areas don’t receive enough sunlight for effective application.

In order to generate energy from sunlight we use solar panels and towers. If follows a solar farm is just a large scale version of this concept. A solar farm could potentially be a sustainable land use project. An interesting solar fact is that in most cases solar panels on your roof or on a solar farm is not for your direct use. There are practical and financial reasons for this. One reason that solar power and consumption don’t synchronize well. So it makes more sense for solar power to go into the main grid. You effectively sell the solar power you generate back to the energy companies.

By installing solar panels you become an energy generator. This means you are both a consumer and a producer. You pay for the energy you use and you get paid for the energy you generate. So solar panels don’t have to be on your roof or even on your property. By putting solar panels on a farm you can generate more energy and make more money. There is more space on a farm which means panels to be mounted on motorised towers that can effectively track the sun and maximize energy output.

Why Business Blogs Shouldn't Be on BlogSpot.com

Disclaimer: HubSpot offers a business blogging engine as a component of our software package. But, this article is not about HubSpot. For the record, I’m a big fan of WordPress as an alternative for the tech savvy folks out there.

A couple of weeks ago, we moved Dave Kurlan’s blog “ Understanding The Sales Force ” off of Google’s Blogger product and over to HubSpot. Dave is an active blogger, runs a successful sales consulting practice here in the Boston area and is also the author of a book called “ Baseline Selling ”. [Side note: If you’re involved in sales or are running a company with a sales force, you should check out his blog].

In any case, in this process of moving Dave’s blog off of Google’s Blogger, I learned a lot. I am now even further convinced that most businesses should not be using the “yourcompany.blogspot.com” alternative for hosting a blog on Google.

Top Reasons Why Business Blogs Shouldn’t Be On BlogSpot.com


1. Google Doesn’t Need The Help: Lets assume you have a company website (you do have a company website , don’t you?). This website is probably on its own domain (example: yourcompany.com) By hosting your blog as a sub-domain on BlogSpot.com you’re basically depriving your primary website of any real search engine optimization . Instead, if you’re using blogspot.com, you’re kind of benefiting Google instead. Trust me, Google does not need your help to rank highly on its own search engine. Even if you don’t switch blogging platforms, please do yourself a favor and get your own “real” domain now. At least this way, if you decide to switch later, you won’t lose all the search engine optimization (SEO) that you’ve built up. See the next bullet for more details.

2. Domain Lock-In: Savvy technical people will tell you that the right way to move a website or blog from one domain to another is via what is called a “301 permanent redirect”. In lay person’s terms, what this means is that you setup a clean forwarding address from your old site to the new site. By using this approach, you don’t lose any of the search engine love you’ve pulled together. Guess what: Google does not let you do a 301 redirect from your old site to anywhere else if you’re using blogspot.com as your domain. Let me repeat this. If you currently have a blog that is something like mybusiness.blogspot.com and you build a ton of inbound links to the site, Google does not let you redirect that SEO value to a new site (like your company website). This is a Very Bad Thing. Not enough for me to call Google evil, but enough for me to at least think it.

3. Transferring Data Is Unreasonably Hard: Dave Kurlan (the guy whose blog we moved off of Blogger) is a prolific writer. He had over 130 articles authored on the Blogger platform. Clearly, we wanted to move his data over using an automated process. No problem, we thought, Google is nice enough to provide a programming interface to support this. In fact, they have multiple such APIs (application programming interfaces). As it turns out, neither of the versions of these interfaces that Google provides works completely. One version doesn’t let you migrate comments (an important part of many blogs). The other doesn’t let you move more than a few dozen articles – period. Basically, Google has seemingly made it intentionally difficult to migrate off of their platform. This is just annoying. We ended up writing a fair amount of custom code and jumping through a few hoops to get all of the data migrated over (which we finally did). But, this was much harder than it should have been, and we’re trained professionals (so please, don’t try this at home). If you’re not a programmer, chances are you won’t be able to do this yourself. It shouldn’t be that hard.

4. Mediocre Feature-Set: I just think Google’s blogging product (Blogger) is just not with the times when it comes to advanced functionality that is of value to today’s business bloggers . It doesn’t support things like article tagging, comment subscriptions and easy integration into other sites like Technorati. This is probably not such a bad thing for the millions of mainstream personal bloggers out there. But, if you’re a business blogger, and hope to be a power-blogger someday, I’d suggest that some of these missing features are important. Currently, I’m adding a new feature to HubSpot every week as my startup blog (http://OnStartups.com ) becomes more and more popular. OnStartups.com has over a reach of over 3,000 people a day and is now in the top 1% of blogs on the Internet – as ranked by Technorati. I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve that I think will push the state-of-the-art for business blogging. You’ll see them at first at OnStartups.com, followed shortly by the blogs of our early clients.

So, in summary, though Blogger is free – it’s not really free. The value of your time is much more important. If you’re looking to build a successful business blog that will help you find more clients and grow your business, you should find a professional blogging platform that is designed for your needs. HubSpot has one such offering (it’s a piece of what we do). But, if all you need is a blogging tool, we’d recommend WordPress. If I didn’t have maniacal control over the HubSpot software, I’d likely be using the WordPress product for my personal blog.

If you’re on BlogSpot.com right now and need help getting off, drop us a line. Even if you don’t pick HubSpot, we should be able to help a bit.

How to Create a Successful Business Blog in Minutes

Fact: it is obscenely easy to set up a business blog today and begin driving new, qualified traffic to your site soon.

Regular readers of HubSpot's blog are probably already experiencing the benefits of regular blogging, including harvesting the long tail of search traffic to drive incremental, high-quality leads to their site. If you're not already doing this, though, you can and you should be blogging for your business.

5 Steps to Starting a Successful Business Blog

1) Pick a blogging service . HubSpot, Wordpress, Blogger, Posterous, whatever - and start a blog. This will take no more than 5 minutes.

2) Host your blog on your main site . If you leave it on its original domain (i.e. mybusiness.wordpress.com), your domain won't be getting any of the SEO credit from your blogging efforts. Note that this change is typically a paid service, so be prepared to put some skin in the game. Contact your current developer, your cousin who's "good with computers", or do it yourself; just get your new blog set up on a subdomain or page of your main site.

3) Consider your ideal site visitors . They have a problem they want to solve that your business can help address. You probably write 20 emails a day about this problem. What would they search for in Google to solve that problem? Got it? That's your very first keyword.

4) Brainstorm keywords related to your business. Write them down! Concentrate on long tail keyword phrases 3-4 words long--if your business is in one specific geography, that's a great way to target your keyword phrases. You want to be choosing slightly more obscure keywords that are highly relevant to your business. More obscure = easier to rank for = easier to get to the front page of Google. Furthermore, obscure words will actually be more specific to your business and the types of products and services you provide. Both of these are key to driving quality traffic to your site.

5) Write your first blog post. Take note to un-salesify your language and try to educate the public for something related to your business. Remember that no one cares about your business until you can solve their problems. Keep all your posts educational, link to other resources online, and provide the very best value you can for your readership.
What's Next?

Keep going. The most important part of blogging for business is to do it regularly. Over time, this will generate new traffic to your site and get you found online. And if your blog is properly integrated for lead generation, you will start to generate new business relatively quickly.

In the case of Raul, he can use his iPad to write posts while waiting for his next fare. For you, maybe you can think up a post idea over a morning coffee, run or shower, scribble a few notes on the way to work, and devote a few minutes 3 times a week to blogging. Ultimately, making content creation a personal priority is the only way you'll accomplish your blogging goals. Take those 10 minutes to dream up your next post .

There's certainly an art to blogging, no doubt about it. But until you get started, you've got nothing but a mountain to climb. Get out there and start climbing--the reward is proven to be sweet.

How to Bake a Blog: Recipe for Business Blogging Success

As you cook Thanksgiving dinner today, watch how your hungry guests keep returning to the kitchen– drawn in by attractive, delicious-smelling food. Today, these hungry people are your family, but on your website they represent your visitors. You want to attract vistiors to your website with compelling content. Notice that as your family comes into your kitchen, they sniff it out, maybe even steal a bite. If this was your website, you’d offer the bite in exchange for a bit of information about the visitor and transform them into a lead.

                              

                              How to Bake a Delicious, Content-Filled Blog

INGREDIENTS

1 blogger (preferably someone passionate about content production)
1 RSS reader (set up and containing blogs related to your industry)
1 URL (with Typepad or Blogspot accounts removed and discarded)
Blog Analytics, installed
2 cups Social Media
1 cup SEO
1 Image, iconic and captivating
Blog Post Titles, Engaging
3-10 Meta Keywords, Researched
1 Meta Description containing 1 Keyword Phrase
Call-To-Action, Attractive and Mixed with a Compelling Offer
A whole lot of patience (don’t worry if you bake it, they will come)

(Optional) Team of passionate employees who foster a sense of content creation in your company

PREPARATION

1. Use your RSS reader to begin reading the blogs of other people in your industry. Be sure to comment, especially on posts interesting to your prospects, with meaningful insights and questions. Repeat this step continually while your blog bakes.

2. Begin writing posts that your prospects will find interesting. You can format your post in a variety of different ways, but make sure that you organize your thoughts in some way. People have a tendency to skim, so be sure to highlight important sections with a sub-title or organize your post into a list format. When completed, set blog post aside to cool.

3. Start thinking of photos for your blog post. It’s easy to get distracted searching for an image. Keep the process short by focusing on the theme of your post and using it as a keyword in an image search. You can make an image yourself (a chart or graph) or use Flickr’s Advanced Search to search for images based on tags people have used. Be sure to include alt-txt that contains important keywords when you add the image to your blog post.

4. Now it’s time to add an effective call-to-action to the end of your post. If you’d like you can prepare these ahead of time. Make sure your offer is compelling to people who may read your blog post.

5. Top off your blog post with an engaging title which will draw people into your site. It’s best if your title is also less or around 70 characters in length.

6. Return to your blog post and populate the keyword Meta data with appropriate keywords you’ve selected as low difficulty, but have a generous search volume (if you’re a Hubspot customer you can use Keyword Grader to compile and monitor your list of keywords).

7. Write a unique Meta description that does not include your blog title. Include 1 of your keyword phrases. You want to keep your Meta description less than 156 characters in length.

8. After proofreading your post, your blog post is now ready to share. Be sure to share your blog posts via your social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. If you can, set up a tool that automatically posts your blog posts when they go live.

9. Your blog is now in the oven of the internet, baking. Repeat steps 1 through 8 once a week or more for the next few months, all the while using your Blog Analytics to discover who is visiting your blog posts. Check out your most popular blog posts and try to recreate your success in new posts. Analyze and repeat.