Here’s the show link. 10 AM Mountain / noon Eastern today, talking about professional blogging, SOBCon09, Blog Action Day and other assorted goodness.

Listen below:

Barack Obama.

Quick! Say the first word that comes to mind.

…

Was it “change?”

“The change we need.”

“Change we can believe in.”

Obama owned that word in 2008. His masterful social media campaign gets a lot of the credit for that.

Do you love the power of words? Do you relish them?

Most blogs consist entirely, or almost entirely, of words.

Words can create. Words can destroy.

Words wield scary power for businesses.

Your blog is going to help or hurt your business in 2009.

How careful are you about the words you use or avoid on your business blog?

What are you going to do this week to become more so?

1. Imagine a person.
2. Think of a problem she has that you can solve.
3. Publish the solution at your blog.
4. Invite her to share your solution with others.
5. Reward her for doing so.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 forever.

Step-by-step tips on this topic next week.

Which step is the hardest for you?

Last week I surprised you with a $750 blog consulting contest here at Visionary Blogging.

The prize: a $250 blog consulting package to boost any professional blog, including:

• A 130-point blog inspection in PDF format
• A video screencast with blogging tips
• A 30-minute phone consultation to discuss blogging strategy

Entry was simple. All you had to do was answer my question, “How can I help you?”

Winners were to be selected randomly from among all entrants.

I promised you results today. Here they are.

Robyn Tippins (Twitter: @duzins) asked me the following question on Twitter last week:

Is Facebook Connect worth the time for a business blog?

Great question, Robyn! Here’s my answer.

First, for those new to this subject …

What is Facebook Connect?

Facebook Connect is a simple way to integrate Facebook into your blog or website. For example, TechCrunch currently has a blog post comment area that looks like this (minus the cool sepia effect):

Why or why not use Facebook Connect?

Some reasons to use Facebook Connect on your business blog:

• Some people have Facebook accounts but aren’t registered at your blog. If registration is something you require in order for people to be able to comment on your posts, Facebook Connect might make it more appealing for these folks to register and interact more with your blog.

I hope this list saves you some grief in your professional blogging.

10. Publish sporadically.

9. Spend too much time consuming content.

8. Spend too little time creating content.

7. Fail to plan effectively or not at all.

6. Expect the world to adore your blog without any marketing effort on your part.

5. Fail to pay close attention to numbers that indicate blog growth rate.

4. Fail to produce content that serves your intended audience.

3. Fail to serve the right audience.

2. Fail to love your audience to bits.

Welcome to the Visionary Blogging Links series!

What is The Visionary Blogging Links Series?

Every Friday here at Visionary Blogging, I’ll share the best URLs I’ve discovered over the past week that have to do with business blogging or professional blogging in general and blogging/social media strategy in particular.

I promise to only share links of the highest quality, and never more than 10 per week. You deserve the cream of the cream.

Since today is the second Friday of 2009, we’ll call this week’s edition “Weeks 1-2.”

By next week I’ll create a centralized page where we can keep track of all the links throughout the year and have them organized for maximum usefulness.

Wanna know the secret to being a successful blogger?

I’ve been working with business blogs full-time for over three years. I know the secret to easy blogging success.

Trust me: I’ve learned this easy lesson the hard way.

Ready?

Here it is. Here’s the grand secret to smooth sailing in your business blogging.

Welcome to Part 5 of a 5-part series on the elements of visionary blogging. This article will help you become a more diligent blogger so you can increase your blogging success.

• Part 1: Increase Your Awareness (the ability to see)
• Part 2: Sharpen Your Focus (the ability to look)
• Part 3: Hone Your Discernment (the ability to evaluate)
• Part 4: Excite Your Imagination (the ability to create)
• Part 5: Strengthen Your Diligence (the ability to endure)

Recognize this mountain?

Look closely at the colossal peak in the photo above. Can you name it?

• Hint: It’s bigger and taller than Mount Everest.
• Hint: It can be seen from two cities that are more than 350 miles (560 kilometers) apart by car.
• Hint: Its name in Athabaskan means “the Great One.”

First, hit play so you can listen to the song while you read.

I don’t wanna spend my life jaded, waiting
To wake up one day and find
That i let all these years go by wasted

The other day I listened to Wasted by Carrie Underwood.

It hit me hard.

It also prompted these thoughts on how not to waste your time blogging. I hope you find them not to be a waste.