Archive for business blogs

Better Business Blogs:
Correct Those Broken Links

business-blogsAre you keeping your business blog fresh? If you’re like me, and you’ve been blogging for a number of years, chances are some of your links may no longer work. This guest post, from Susan Boggs, offers tips for successful bloggers and blogs on how to find and correct broken links.

In a perfect world, we would always know exactly what the Big Search Engines want from us and our business blogs, always and without a doubt. We would engrave them into stone and follow them judiciously. Our blogs would rank high for our keywords, and life would be wonderful.

Ah, yes, nirvana.

Unfortunately, in this world we call the Internet, blogging is not always quite that simple. The good news?

Life is still wonderful. Read More→

How Do You Choose a Blog Platform?

WPPlatformChoiceHow do you choose a blog platform

In my last post, How to Start a Blog: 7 Steps BEFORE You Blog, I shared important information you want to consider before your first post, including signing up for a trial blog.

With so many great blog platforms available, including WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Ghost, Squarespace, Wix, Typepad, Weebly, etc., how do you know which is best for you?  This guest post, by Suzanne Bird-Harris, takes a look at the differences between two of the most popular blogging platforms to help you identify what factors to consider when choosing a platform.   Read More→

Blogging Strategies for
End-of-Year Business Blogs

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→

Tips on Writing a Great Blog Post:
Give it a Rest

Bird BandageIt’s the rainy season here in Mexico – a great time to do a lot of reading, writing and recovery – at least, that’s what I told myself when I scheduled my shoulder surgery.  But I’m having trouble with my blog writing.  And now I’m stuck. I’ve got Blogger’s Block.  (Yes, even experienced bloggers can get stuck from time to time.)

So I pull out my bag of great blog post tricks, and determine where I’m stuck in the process.  And that’s it.  I had altered my writing process.  But that shouldn’t matter… should it? Read More→

2 Sure-Fire Ways to Inspire Your Blog Writing

Business-blog-writingA few years ago I polled readers and asked what their biggest blogging challenge is. Turns out, it’s not lack of time, it’s lack of inspiration. Does your blog writing lack inspiration? Is it hard to get really fired up when starting to write a post?

I get that.  When I was just starting out as a blogger (was that really over 15 years ago?!) I could just feel that screen staring right back at me.  What can a blogger blog about to other bloggers?

Lack of inspiration comes from not being sure you’re doing it right, or doing it well, and lack of confidence that it will be worth it… in other words, fear and doubt.

Fear and doubt go away when you know what you’re doing, and have a system that will allow you to move forward confidently.

Here are two ways you can side-step fear and doubt, and write frequent, consistent quality posts and develop a blogging habit that will grow your abilities over time. Nobody starts out writing well. Yet, everybody’s got a piece of genius within them, so it’s a question of finding it and putting it on paper, quickly, before any demons get in the way. Read More→

Secrets of Busy Bloggers:
4 Social Media Time Savers

Social Media BloggingMany of my readers are busy professionals who don’t have a lot of time for blogging or social media. But marketing is vital, especially if you’re growing a business, want to get found, get known, and get clients.

For those of you who have the bare minimum of time, and still want to get results, here are a few social media tips and tricks I’ve used. I must be doing something right: these tips have resulted in new clients directly from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

1. Use social media.

Read More→

Don’t Fall Prey to Auto-Feeds:
Your Blog Posts Deserve a Personal Introduction

Social MediaMany people who fell prey to the Auto-feed short-cut introduced by Facebook found that it did much more harm than good. And it’s understandable why they did it: how can you have time for social media, when you struggle with creating consistent, relevant blog content?

While it may have saved time initially, there were costs in the long run. The same is true for auto-feeds to LinkedIn, Twitter, and all the other social media sites. Although this seems like a good idea, it may do you more harm than good.

Here are 4 reasons why you should NOT automatically feed your blog posts into these social media sites: Read More→

5 Best Business Blog Goals for 2015-
And 5 Steps to Get You There

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→

10 Great Things for 2014:
My Business Blog Gratitude List

thank youYou may have heard me say it before – my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.  It’ a fairly big holiday in the U.S., and a great way to celebrate gratitude. This year, I updated my gratitude list, and perhaps you can relate and it will inspire you to make up your own list.

I’m grateful for (in no particular order):

  1. Business blogs that make it easy to stay informed and connect with others
  2. LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook that make it easy AND fun to build communities!
  3. Shopping cart systems like Kick Start Cart that make it easy to build a database list that’s easy to segment, broadcast messages, and seamlessly process registrations and purchases
  4. Google that makes it easy to do research and locate information and people
  5. SEO tools like Scribe, that make it easier to optimize blog posts for better search engine results
  6. Smart Internet marketers who by their clever ideas light the way and show us what’s possible
  7. Stupid Internet marketers who show us what not to do
  8. The 2.8 billion people connected to the Internet world-wide, some of whom participate and contribute
  9. All the geeks behind the scenes who continue to develop software and hardware for the rest of us
  10. All of our clients who have invested their confidence and time with us to learn better online marketing. Thanks so much for reading. Thanks for subscribing. Thanks for the occasional comments, tweets and re-tweets. You make my life so much more interesting. It’s a privilege to write here for you. You keep me on my toes, reading, learning, writing.

I wish you the best for Thanksgiving and for the end-of-the-year festivities in your own countries!

 

The Scariest Blog: No Personality

Scariest Blog PostWhat’s the scariest blog post you have ever read?  For me it’s a blog or website without any personality.

Storytelling and personalization is the key piece in content marketing as I see it. People are good at writing about what they know. They aren’t as good about expressing who they are and why they do what they do.

If you’re not writing real stories, your content – on your blog, in your newsletter, on your web pages – runs the risk of being boring. You may be excited about what you do as a professional, but your clients will get bored or overwhelmed if you just throw information at them.

What’s your back-story? Read More→