Archive for About Blogs – Page 2

A Brief History of Business Blogging
(And How to Make It Profitable)

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, October 8th, 2015

Business-BloggingHow do you make money from business blogging? This is a question I was recently asked by a friend. It seems like a straightforward question, but the answer is complex.

Most blogs aren’t profitable, but people devote a great deal of time and energy to them. There must be a good reason, no? You need to understand how to use business blogging to suit your business goals.

Things have changed in the blogging stratosphere, rapidly. Let’s review how it all started, because it’s revealing.

According to NYMag, the first business blog was created in 1994, Links.net. Do you remember Altavista, Webcrawler or AskJeeves? In case you don’t, that’s how early adapters searched the internet.  And then Yahoo launched in 1994 and utilized man-made descriptions with each URL. This was a game changer for many. Here are a few key dates that led up to business blogging: Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, How to...Tips, Profit
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Blogging Strategies for
End-of-Year Business Blogs

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, September 30th, 2015

How are you doing on your business blogging strategies for 2015?  Have you been hitting the targets and benchmarks you set for yourself?

I don’t believe in making New Year’s resolutions, but after 15+ years working with executive coaches and consultants, I know that having clearly defined goals and expectations for a business blog or website is critical to help you get found, get known, and get clients. Setting strategies and goals will improve how you show up on the Web.

If you haven’t set any goals, or you’re just starting out, here’s how you can still get in the game and get some traction in 2015. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing
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Business Blogging: 4 Tips
PLUS 1 Great Video on Creativity

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

Business-bloggingBusiness blogging can be frustrating for professionals. Does this happen to you? You sit down to (finally!) write on your business blog, you’ve done a bunch of research, you’ve created lists, outlines and even saved a few great blog post drafts, but you haven’t actually published any of your content… There always seems to be one more thing to check before you pull the ‘publish’ trigger.

I talk to professionals all the time who are ‘blog publishing shy’. Perhaps the most crucial stage of business blogging is implementation: PUBLISH THE POST! In this series of blog posts, I’ve been sharing my tips on the four stages of writing a great blog post. It follows the same steps of any creative process:

Preparation => Incubation => Illumination => Implementation

Business blogging is creative but it also follows steps. If you want to write quality content that reflects the quality of your services as a professional then follow these four steps all the way through to implementation.  Creative blog posts are written by a process. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Content Marketing, How to...Tips, Managing Your Ezine & Blog Tasks, Writing Great Blog Content
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The 4 Step Creative Process for Writing Blogs:
(& Happy Birthday to WOW Blog)

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, September 4th, 2015

Writing-BlogsDo you struggle with the creative process of writing blogs? Do you cringe when you need to find a topic for your blog? You’re not alone.

Over the past 11 years, I’ve written a ton of information about writing great blog posts and newsletters, as well as e-books, white papers and articles to increase your visibility. Sometimes it feels like I’ve already written as much as I have to say. There’s nothing new, it’s been done before.

But then I remember that people forget and new people come to visit all the time. It’s motivation to keep my blog posts fresh and interesting.

So how do you choose a topic for writing blogs that will be most relevant to your readers, and hasn’t been said 1,000 times before? Trust the process and get busy.

Almost 100 years ago, Graham Wallas observed that creative solutions appear sequentially:

Preparation => Incubation => Illumination => Implementation

The same is true for writing quality content – blog posts are written by following a creative process. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, How to...Tips, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content
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4 Ideas to Generate Blog Topics

By Patsi Krakoff
Tuesday, June 16th, 2015

Blog Blogging Communication Connect Data Social Concept

How are you doing with your 2015 blog goals? Are you publishing blog topics that include compelling, relevant content that solves the problems of your readers?

A study on B2B content marketing has shown that 70% of businesses online have more content now than they had last year, and of these, 80% are doing so through corporate blogs.

These smart professionals understand the effectiveness of blogs, but blogging is not without challenges: figuring out what blog topics to focus on, conducting appropriate research, writing great content, and ensuring it has been optimized for search engines. If you’re stumped about what to write next, try these four ideas and see how far you get.

1.  Part of your writing process should include keyword research, and nothing can help you accomplish this like Google SERP (search engine results page) analytical tools.  Many free versions are available online, including SERPs.com. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs
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How Authentic is Your Blog Writing?… And,
How Do You Write Authentically?

By Patsi Krakoff
Sunday, May 10th, 2015

AuthenticAll the data shows that people prefer doing business with authentic brands and authentic professionals. But how authentic is your blog writing? Do you sound authentic? And, how do you write authentically, anyway?

In my last blog post, I shared 5-steps for a good bio/marketing message for an e-newsletter:

  • Tell them who you are and what you can do to help solve their challenges.
  • Let them know what kinds of people you work with, and how long you’ve been helping them.
  • Don’t try to sound too good. People have antennae for hyperbole.
  • Read your bio out loud to see if it sounds authentic.

The problem is that when you try to write authentically, it’s difficult to know what exactly to do. What makes blog writing sound real, sound authentic? Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Blogs We Love, On Writing Better, Writing Great Blog Content
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Story Telling for Blogs

By Patsi Krakoff
Thursday, March 19th, 2015

What's Your StoryDo you use story telling on your blog or website?

For anyone involved in persuading others (i.e., everyone), success depends on cutting through the noise and clutter to make the sale or persuade others to adopt our point of view.

Storytelling sells and persuades because it’s an innate skill that has evolved over centuries—something we all know how to do.

In fact, a storytelling gene (FOXP2), discovered in 2001, gives us the physical and neurological skills needed to speak words rapidly and precisely. We use these language abilities to form complex sentences in the proper storytelling sequence. Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, How to...Tips, Story Telling
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Blog Design Blink Test:
Simple, Easy Navigation

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, January 21st, 2015

Navigation and SimplicityIn order to impress visitors and showcase your business expertise, your blog must pass the “blink” test.

As I mentioned in my previous post, your blog design must incorporate three critical elements:

  1. Branding/Personality (Banners, logo, photos)
  2. Navigation/Simplicity (Layout, use of white space and read more)
  3. Quality Content (Problems you solve for your readers)

Navigation/Simplicity

Your blog design should offer easy navigation, easy ways to find solutions to their problems.

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, How to...Tips
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Does Your Blog Pass the Blink Test?
3 Critical Blog “Must Haves”

By Patsi Krakoff
Friday, January 16th, 2015

Blink TestDoes your blog pass the blink test? Content is king, but if your design stinks, visitors won’t get past the banner. They won’t stay, they won’t get to know you and they won’t subscribe to your blog.

I mentioned this in my previous post: in order to impress visitors and showcase your business expertise, your site must pass the “blink” test.  If it doesn’t, you could be spending a lot of your valuable time blogging for nothing.

Bad blog design = bad marketing = no new business. Stinks, doesn’t it?

The three critical blog “must have” elements you need to consider:

  1. Branding/Personality (Banners, logo, photos)
  2. Navigation/Simplicity (Layout, use of white space and read more)
  3. Content (Problems you solve for your readers)

Branding/Personality

Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Attracting Clients, Getting Read, How to...Tips
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5 Best Business Blog Goals for 2015-
And 5 Steps to Get You There

By Patsi Krakoff
Wednesday, December 31st, 2014

Achieve the BestWhat goals have you identified for your blog and website for 2015? Have you created a map to help you reach your goals?

It’s true, I don’t believe in making new year’s resolutions.  But after 15+ years working with executive coaches and consultants, I know that having clearly defined goals and expectations for a business blog or website is critical to help you get found, get known, and get clients; it will improve how you show up on the Web.

I’ve found that many professionals are vague when it comes to setting their business blog goals. They haven’t clearly identified their expectations, or what they want their blog to do for their business. If you fall into that category, and you haven’t identified your goals (or you want to refine the goals you’ve set), consider this checklist: Read More→

Categories : About Blogs, Content Marketing, How to...Tips
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