By Corey Perlman
October 14, 2008
I already know something very unique about every single person who is reading this article. No, I’m not channeling David Blaine or spending too much time watching reruns of Mind Freak. I just know each and every one of you is an expert on at least one topic in his or her field. I also know that you have a massive audience via the World Wide Web that is eager to hear what you have to say. Regardless of your profession, you have information that we need and that’s what makes it valuable. Let’s use a dentist or dental hygienist as an example. They know how to keep our teeth healthy and pearly white. If they provided that information free of charge, wouldn’t you read it? I know I would - especially with that candy jar sitting outside of my office. What if you were in the market for a new home and a real estate agent gave you free tips on how to negotiate when buying a new home? I bet many new home buyers would be first in line to gobble that information up. And I could go on and on with other examples.
The point is everyone has valuable information to share with the public and the Internet has provided a vehicle to get your message out to the masses quickly and effectively. That vehicle is called a blog (or web log or online journal for us non-techies out there) and it is a web page where you can publish content for others to read and comment on. Blogs are easy to use and you can set one up absolutely free. My blogging site of choice is www.blogger.com and I like it for two reasons. First, it’s very user friendly and perfect for the beginner blogger. And most importantly, it’s owned by a company you may have heard of called Google.
Why should you care that it’s owned by Google?
As I touched on earlier, a blog is a web page and a web page can be ranked in search engines such as Google. In fact, blogs are very popular with the search engines because they like content heavy web pages and blogs are simply loaded with content. So if you are looking to increase your overall presence on the largest search engine in the world, why not use the blogging tool that they own.
If you’re still not sure what to write about, then remember,”If you provide value, they will come.” Give high value content in your blog posts and you will begin to gain a following. And the exciting part is people will come back again and again as they will have become addicted to your content.
Where do the new customers and repeat business come from?
Once you have people reading your blog and gaining value, you can softly sell your products or services without offending your audience. So my philosophy is provide value first, sell second. My world is Internet marketing, so I might write a post in my blog about how to rank high in Google and then my next post might be an invitation to one of my workshops. And they won’t be put off by my self promotion because I sell rarely and provide value often.
How do you get started?
I will leave you with the two most important things to remember when creating content in blogs. First, what words are people searching for on Google that you’d love to have your blog appear at the top of the search results page? Use those words over and over again when writing in your blog. Search engines evaluate frequency when determining where to rank web pages on their site. Finally, always remember to Hurl Your URL! That simply means to provide a link on your blog to your main Web site so people can easily go there for more information about you or your company.
Corey Perlman helps businesses learn strategies to dominate the search engines and drive traffic to their Web sites. His book, eBoot Camp, will be available in January 2009. Contact Corey at [email protected] or visit http://www.theebootcamp.com.
It’s a warm summer Saturday morning at the Farmers’ Market in Holland, Mich. Business at Hasselman’s Pure Michigan Honey booth is, to coin a phrase, buzzing. Shoppers from all over the area rely on Larry Hasselman and his bees to provide honey in a variety of flavors and forms, beeswax candles and the ever-popular “sippin’ strips” - thin, honey-filled straws that only serve to whet your appetite for more.
Michigan’s “rent-a-bee” (or pollinating) beekeepers are busier than ever. One reason is that feral bees - the once-domesticated honey bees that swarm out of their original hive with a new queen and find a new place to hang their combs, usually in a hollow tree - have been dying off.
“Between 30 and 50 percent of Michigan’s pollinating beekeepers actually travel quite a bit because in the winter they’ll pack up their colonies in special containers and take them to Florida and other states that need more bees than live there year-round,” says Zachary Huang, associate professor of entomology at Michigan State. “That’s good eventually for Michigan consumers, I guess, but it doesn’t do much for our economy.” He’s asked how the contribution of Michigan bees to the state’s economy is measured. “Michigan beekeepers aren’t required to be registered,” he says, “so the bees aren’t either. It’s only when any of the beekeepers want to sell honey that the state takes much notice of them.” So, the best way to measure how Michigan bees are doing is by measuring their productivity - by how the crops they pollinate did over the past year. In the 2005 crop year - the latest for which we have complete reporting - “the value of the primary fruit and vegetable crops that depend on pollination (by honey bees) was approximately $422 million,”, said Huang. All important crops (such as apples, blueberries, cherries, cucumbers [for pickling] and pumpkins) in Michigan depend heavily on honey bees. Therefore,” he continues, “without honey bees to supply pollination services, most fruit and vegetable producers would be forced out of business and Michigan’s agricultural industry would be devastated.” And as for honey itself? 72,000 Michigan colonies produced about 3.96 million pounds, down 10 percent from 2005. Given the effects of weather and other variables, Michigan’s bees seem to be doing quite well.
When it comes to Michigan traditions, nothing can compare to America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Parade Company, an organization that is responsible for the Parade, Target Fireworks and more was featured on Corp!’s cover 10 years ago. Joan A. LeMahieu has served as president of The Parade Company since 2004, and while she may not have grown up in Michigan, she certainly understands the importance of keeping these Michigan traditions alive.
Corp!: How do you keep the Parade fresh and new every year? 
Like the unique combinations that make up ONO Tea, Phuong Le, 31, and Viet Le, 25, created the fledgling business by mixing cultural traditions from their Asian heritage, a curiosity for culinary arts, and a passion for healthy lifestyles. Raised in Grand Rapids, Mich., Phuong spent nearly two years in Hawaii before launching ONO Tea with her brother Viet. Both now reside in the Detroit area.
Some direct-to-consumer sales resulted from their exhibit at the World Tea Expo this summer with buyers popping up from such health-conscious states as California and Florida. One customer segment that is growing at a surprising rate is the male client. Phuong credits this success to their lifestyle line “Real Men Drink Tea,” in addition to the one-on-one communication and education happening on “The Tea Chick,” a blog she created to demystify tea, share recipes and promote the benefits of tea drinking.
Pande is a former entrepreneur and founder of Pande Associates, a business advisory and coaching firm in the Detroit area.
On a visit to a local company-owned store, however, you can see turkey and other meats, alongside a wide variety of side dishes and deserts. A number of food products from other high-end manufacturers compete with the ham for attention. 
The ‘Café’ identity is growing in importance because HoneyBaked depends heavily on its lunchtime customers. David Babich, manager of the Ferndale, Mich. store, says that lunchtime catering is an important part of his customer mix. “We have a lot of offices downtown that we deliver to, since we’re right here on Woodward. We also have a good business with factory workers ordering when they’re on a rush project and can’t get out.”
The idea of family-friendly extends to the rest of the staff as well. “I have people who work for me who’ve been with the company for more than 20 years. It’s great because we have a lot of repeat customers who come in for lunch on a regular basis. We have a lot of repeat customers as well who come in for holidays,” says Babich.
Dinner is increasing as a percentage of sales, even in an economy where downsizing is rampant. “We call it the ‘step-down effect,'” says Schmidt. “People who used to think nothing of eating out a high-end restaurant a couple of times a week can now be found at Applebee’s. The mid-level chains are losing a lot of their regular customers to us.” The reason is that HoneyBaked is now offering complete dinners that require little effort on the part of the often time-constrained mom or dad in charge of feeding the family for the evening. “We’re a one-stop shop,” says Schmidt. “They get a main dish, our famous side dishes and dessert if they want, without having to go anywhere else. It represents a healthy balance between cost and convenience.”
Once there was a “glass ceiling,” which supposedly prevented women from reaching top positions in business, government, education, medicine and the entire spectrum of career fields.
