The great thing about cooking up custom content is that when you get tired of your cramped office, you can always take your show on the road to your local coffee shop or library. Yet this tried-and-true blogging getaway tool backfired on me recently as I escaped to my neighborhood Starbucks. I’m not finicky and I can usually write in loud places with lots of distractions. Some of my best writing sessions went down at a noisy and dramatic all-night laundromat in East Los Angeles. Yet for some reason, this Starbucks on this day was blogging hell. Blasting reggae, an older gentlemen who appeared to be speaking into a megaphone to everyone who walked in the door and a never-ending series of annoying beeps coming from God knows where were just a few of the things standing in the way of my blogging excellence. So it made me wonder: Would a picture-perfect blogging environment be more conducive to creativity or am I doomed to distraction based on my own mental condition du jour?

In my years tinkering on a laptop, I’ve experienced both blogging extremes. I used to blog quietly in a cool, dark and totally silent corner of a library in Santa Monica. I found this serene little foxhole fostered productivity quite beautifully. Still, this perfect condition had a condition of its own. For this blogging-for-business wizard, my magic only happens if I’m prepared. I can be writing on a secluded island or in a bustling shopping mall and if I’m not ready, I can expect to produce nothing than perhaps a few witty Tweets about how screwed and uninspired I am. I need a game plan. If I’m just researching and flipping through the old Google Reader, that can happen anywhere but ideally should go down long before I sit down to write. Even just a few ideas scratched down on notebook paper can make the world of difference when it comes to easy and inspired blog writing.

My blogging paradise also needs to be disconnected from the Internet. Blasphemy, I know… but the temptation to fry my brain on Facebook or read celebrity gossip on RadarOnline is too high. So I find success happens when I create in Word or some other non-online program before I post on my blogging platform. Once I hopped off of social media and looked over my ideas for the week, that annoying Starbucks was just as good as my secret blogging hideout in Santa Monica. But that’s just me.

Readers, you tell us — what’s your idea of blogging nirvana? Do you need a special writing destination or can you make the magic happen anywhere? Spill your blogging secrets in the comments section below!

We here at Brandsplat are not just experts in ghostwriting and savvy blog creation — we also dabble in all things online marketing. And we know better than anybody how important it is to keep bloggers happy. Bloggers are this generation’s version of on-the-scene reporters, and influential bloggers can truly make or break a company. So it isn’t surprising that many companies bend over backwards to make sure bloggers are “loving it.”

McDonald’s has a turbulent history with digital engagement. The fast food giant is often pegged as the planet’s foremost purveyor of heart disease and diabetes; online critics aren’t shy at all about stretching Ronald and Co. over the rack. The brand battles huge image issues on nearly every digital platform. 2012 has already seen the #McFail disaster, wherein a Twitter hashtag campaign backfired on the company. So when it comes to the super-costly and mega-high-stakes marketing of its partnership with the Olympics, McDonald’s is doing whatever it can to keep bloggers fat and happy, so to speak.

The Huffington Post reported last week that McDonald’s has assembled some 400 bloggers. This blogging army, according to HuffPo, has been plied with all-expense-paid vacations and lavish gifts. And all McDonald’s wants in return is a slew of positive posts about its brand and products. The high-cost, high-profile blogging campaign will be rolled out over the next few months in the UK, just in time for the Summer Games. Organizers are hoping to show bloggers how easy it is to use Facebook and Twitter to promote their glowing McBlogs. Shifty? Unethical? Sleazy? Perhaps for regular journalists — but this is blogging, so all bets are off! McDonald’s has a long history of trying to buy off bloggers — most recently with a mommy blogger experiment that backfired in 2011.

Mickey D’s isn’t the only company who tries to sway bloggers. Marie Callendar’s, Levis and nearly every cosmetic company under the sun (just to name a few) have all openly appealed to bloggers in hopes of a few kind (and influential) words. So, readers, we ask you: Does this practice make good digital marketing sense or does it make you want to take a shower? Let us have it in the comments section below!

Yesterday we couldn’t help snickering just a little at the Mashable infographic entitled “Rise of the Mommy Blogger.” The title made it sound like some kind of bad ’50s horror movie — not to mention that the images of cartoon aprons and girly colors they used were beyond silly. But “mommy bloggers” themselves are nothing to laugh at. According to a new study from Scarborough Research, 3.9 million moms in the United States identify as bloggers. The average mommy blogger salary is a not-too-shabby $84,000 a year. Moms who read or contribute to blogs are also 52 percent more likely to have college degrees than moms who don’t. Clearly these are some smart cookies who have figured out how to making blogging a business — so we wondered if these savvy mamas could teach us a thing or two about blog marketing.

The biggest thing us blogging for business mere mortals can learn from mommy bloggers is this: When it comes to marketing, you gotta diversify. Look at the top 10 mommy bloggers. All of them, from “The Bloggess” to “Dooce,” market their blogs and themselves in a variety of ways. Mommy bloggers know you have to throw a lot of spaghetti to make something stick, so that’s why you’ll see these bloggers everywhere from Google+ to PBS. The aforementioned Bloggess is such a masterful Twitter marketing maven that her tweets are almost like their own creative entity. Bottom line: If you want folks to read your company’s blog, you, too, should adopt this kind of no-stone-unturned marketing.

Another thing we can learn from mommy bloggers is to use our own experiences. Readers flock to bloggers with real opinions and stories. Hallow advice with no soul won’t be read, won’t generate ad revenue and won’t bring people to your brand. Like we’ve said before, you don’t have to tell readers your whole life story. But injecting your blog with personality is vital in this day and age. Top 3 blogger Catherine Connors, who pens HerBadMother.com, is a master at giving readers an honest look at her life (and in the meantime, she’s built an online publishing empire).

Finally, mommy bloggers can teach us blog writing robots how to turn our blogs into products. The best mommy blogs on the Internet are able to transcend the mom with the pastel apron blogging about cookies on her pink laptop. Instead, these savvy writers are giving birth to creative properties that can move into magazines, books and other revenue. True, not all of us want to be the next blogging superstar; heck, most of us mainly just want our blogs to look great and help drive folks to our sites. But why not aim for blog excellence in the meantime?

Good blog creation can rope in a ton of readers and help establish a brand. Great blog creation can literally create a brand itself and put a whole new identity on the map. Think we’re exaggerating? Then please explain to us how a series of drawings posted on a blog wound up becoming the fashion world’s hottest new magazine.

In spring of 2010, a little BlogSpot blog entitled Lula: The Subject I Know Best debuted with little initial fanfare. The blog had a mysterious mix of fashion photos and some incredible illustrations by the Lula, the faceless blogger behind the operation. Within a year, the blog was the talk of the fashion industry. The site was now almost entirely made up of Lula’s drawings and she developed an enthusiastic fan base. In fall 2011, Lula’s artistic blog empire was taken to whole new heights when she released Herself. With no models, no celebrity interviews and no highly-paid photographers, Herself made headlines and sold out at newsstands. The secret? It is the world’s first entirely illustrated fashion magazine. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Lulu said, “It’s about creating a point of view of fashion that celebrates the beauty and the excitement of it. We don’t need to choose wearable pieces, and we don’t need to celebrate the commercial value. We have the luxury of celebrating the creativity of fashion.”

Released on April 2nd, the second issued of Herself has gathered a firestorm of publicity for its creative fashion layout featuring drawings of famous actresses and the characters they’ve played — Kristen Stewart and Snow White, Madonna and Eva Peron and Meryl Streep and Margaret Thatcher — all “shot” wearing the latest couture and with one another. The issue is already tough to get your hands on and readers are clamoring for the next edition.

Herself is the kind of blog-branding success story we love simply because it capitalizes on being different by mixing old with new media, art with commerce and innovation with plucky spirit. The media picked up and ran with this story for that very reason. So let Herself be the battle cry of inspiration that helps our blogging for business become a truly memorable work of art.

Content marketing gurus and SEO mavens alike were in a tizzy earlier this week as Google rolled out its Penguin update. Penguin, like Panda, is an algorithm update aimed at catching webspam. Sometimes these updates, which Google routinely does, do really have an impact on online marketers outside the SEO world. But Penguin is unique. Being smaller than Panda, its focus is more direct and strict. And if blogging for business or article marketing is your thing, you could get bounced by Penguin and not even know it. Luckily, there are ways for your blog to play nicely with Penguin and they come straight from Google’s mouth.

Google’s top 8 things to avoid via WebProNews on Penguin are:

1. Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
2. Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
3. Don’t send automated queries to Google.
4. Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.
5. Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains or domains with substantially duplicate content.
6. Don’t create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans or other badware.
7. Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
8. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

These are all great tips — especially the keyword stuffing — Penguin or no Penguin. We’ve seen clients eager to jam as many keywords into a blog or article as possible and it never seemed like a good idea. Now we know it isn’t. Things like sneaky redirects, hidden links and multiple pages of duplicate content have always been looked down on by Google and now Penguin is better way combat it. In short, Google is getting smarter all the time and updates like Penguin are on a mission to take out bad, spammy content.

The good news is that these updates actually help those of us who create original, non-shady content. By playing along with Penguin, instead of against it, your content can now be found faster and read by more people!

Is your blog writing just too darn genius? Do you have way too many readers? Are you constantly applauded for your amazing blog marketing and want it to stop? If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of these, then make sure you implement these sure-to-fail blogging techniques as soon as possible! (Everybody else, feel free to use this list as a “How not to blog” reminder:)

1.) Write Flat, Boring Headlines: If you’re looking to repel readers in record time, make sure you put no thought into your headlines. This way, you’re sure to come up with stale wording that won’t inspire folks to come back. Otherwise, you may fall into the trap of writing snappy headlines, which is an easy way to rope in new audiences. And be careful, because the Internet is filled with articles on just how to do just that.

2.) Over-promote Your Blog: Here’s one we’ve seen a lot lately… Some bloggers go bananas on the promotion and cover every corner of the Internet and any social media platform that will stand still with “Read my blog!!” desperation pleas. If you’re trying to get your hit count down, too much online marketing is a great way to turn readers off. You know you can’t afford to relax and count on readers to reject you, especially with all that great content and your solid (but not hyperactive) blog marketing plan. A simple blog and then tweet combo is the devil in these situations.

3.) Don’t Try Anything New: Haven’t had any luck growing your blog using your old methods? That’s great… By all means, don’t change a thing. But supposing you get to a place where you want to grow your audience, why not try something new that you’ve always wanted to try? Think your blog would be a hit on Google+? Want to dip your toes into the guest-blogging waters? Ready to pepper your blog with amazing interviews? Now is the time! Fresh content needs fresh ideas so mix it up — but only if you want people to read what you’ve written. Think about it.

4.) Stop Being Passionate: Try write about things you don’t love and just watch the readers drop like flies. Seriously, the No. 1 blogging-for-business killer has got to be a lack of passion. Readers can sniff out a bored blogger from a mile away. The thing is if you are unhappy and hate what you’re writing, chances are your readers will too! Don’t be afraid to try this one if you’re hoping to send your readership figures into single digits.

Now go out there and “meh” everybody to death!

Blog writing can translate to big bucks in the fashion and beauty industry. Over the years, we’ve seen the front rows of fashion shows infiltrated with bloggers — most of whom don’t work for big time fashion magazines. Fashion magazines, for their part, embraced the changing tides and were amongst the first of traditional publications to embrace bloggers. This week two powerhouses, Allure and Lucky, have announced two splashy blogger-themed events specially designed for beauty and fashion blog creation mavens.

Call it an inevitability or a sign of the times, but Allure’s Beauty Blogger Awards are a stroke of marketing genius. Not only does the competition call on Allure’s readers to choose the best beauty blogger but the contest relies on the nominated bloggers to help drum up interest in the showdown. And all of it is being co-sponsored by cosmetics company Revlon, of course. The pool of bloggers was narrowed down to 15 which Allure says includes “an astrophysics student, a medical student and a former Wall Street executive who left big business to blog.” Over the next five weeks, the bloggers will be asked to blog on specific topics and, one by one, readers will decide who stays in the competition. The winning blogger gets a VIP package to New York Fashion Week and the opportunity to be published in Allure.

Shopping bible Lucky magazine is taking a different approach to wooing bloggers. FABB, the Fashion and Beauty Blog conference, is a West Coast blogging conference with serious star power. Sponsored by P&G Beauty and Grooming, the conference features speakers like designer Zac Posen, actress Jessica Alba, Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant and Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks. Lucky clearly cooked up this Los Angeles function to give bloggers something to blog about. The one-day event is chock full of speakers, events and giveaways sure to inspire a blogging frenzy.

Obviously, the fashion industry knows that happy bloggers means more coverage. But it goes deeper than that. Companies of all sizes would be wise not only to work diligently on their own blogs but to embrace other blogs that can help promote their industry. Bloggers love having the exclusive on something and small businesses love getting press coverage. It’s a win-win that never goes out of style.

Is it the end of blogging for business as we know it? Should we shut down our blog campaigns and hop on Twitter instead? According to new numbers from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth report, corporate blogging is on the decline. Of the businesses surveyed, only 37 percent were still keeping the blog dream alive in 2011 — down from 50 percent in 2010. Media outlets like USA Today were quick to point the finger at Facebook and Twitter being the reason why companies have turned their backs on blogging. Yet before we ditch it altogether, let’s look at the truth about corporate blogging.

While the numbers do tell us that many companies have stopped blogging, there’s plenty they don’t tell us. Primarily, that most of the world’s most recognizable brands don’t just do Facebook or only have a Twitter account. When it comes to online branding, most of the big guns do it all, including blogging. Look at Southwest Airlines. Or Food Network. Or Disney. Or Diesel. Successful companies know that in order for new media marketing to work, they have to stick their fingers in all kinds of pies. And blogging is content that sticks, unlike Facebook posts that get lost in the shuffle. Also, these numbers surely don’t reflect the small spitfire companies who’ve had their brands put on the map thanks to blogging. Lastly, the big thing we always miss when we talk about how Facebook or Twitter is ruining blogging is how much those platforms actually help blogs. Blog marketing wouldn’t even exist without social media. Show me a cupcake shop owner, celebrity writer or fashion stylist who isn’t also tweeting links to their blogs and I’ll show a person doing it wrong.

But that’s what we think. How about you? Is corporate blogging over or has it only just begun? Sound off below!

Twitter and your blog should go together like peanut butter and jelly. Like macaroni and cheese. Like Ben and Jerry. Like… well, you get the drift. Twitter marketing and blogging for business are such a natural fit that there are literally hundreds of tools to help the pair get along even better. Here are four of our favorites:

1.) Twitter Chats: Everybody has been chatting about Twitter chats lately — and for good reason. Twitter chats are the super easy way to get your following interacting with one another (and your brand) by using a simple hashtag. All you have to do is set a time, pick a hashtag for the chat and alert your following. Twitter chats are fun, simple to set up and, best of all, free! Check this Mashable piece for great examples of Twitter chats.

2.) Twit This: Yeah there are dozens of ways to shrink URL links and tweet them with ease. But Twit This is certainly one of the easiest. And the coolest part of the tool is that it has a plugin especially made for blogs where your readers can tweet your brilliant posts with just one click.

3.) Visibli: Are you a link sharing machine? If so, Visibli is definitely for you. Visibli is an “engagement bar” that allows you to share links with your followers but keeps your brand’s name on the top of the page (and, hence, at the forefront of your followers’ minds). Totally personalized, the bar lets you send links like a madman while your followers never forget from whence they came.

4.) Dlvr.It: Bloggers are often perplexed about how they can synch up their RSS feeds with Twitter. Thankfully, Dlvr.it makes it a lot easier by automatically taking your blog posts from your RSS feed and tweeting them without your ever having to lift a finger. It’s like a cyber paper boy for your blog and you don’t have to worry about tipping him!

Okay, lovely readers, it’s your turn. What are some of your favorite Twitter tools to help promote your blog? Enlighten us in the comments section below!