I think we could all agree on that..

Some posts are easier just to make a quick 5-10 minute video. But, as a rule of thumb.. if it takes me more than 25 minutes to get it down on paper you are probably doing too much

Tip#1 is to stay clear with your topic of choice for every blog post. Nothing’s worse than having your readers ask “where is this going?” dead-smack in the middle of the post.

Tip#2 is to understand “Message To Market”. If your target market are beginners, don’t start writing about higher conversion rate on sales pages when they can’t even set up a domain with hosting.

Tip#3 is to create ‘Scannable Content’ just like this one. This helps your readers get the most out of an article even if they just skim through to get the best points.

Tip#4 is to Bold, Italics, CAPS and Underline words and phrases. This helps you direct your readers attention to the most important piece of the post. (for example – the list of tips in this post)

Tip#5 is use subheads INSIDE your post. Most people just write, and write and write and write.. without any breaks.. without anything that can grab your readers attention. Sub-headlines are great because again, skimmers will continue reading if they found a subhead interesting.

Tip#6 is to insert pictures into your blog post. Pictures provide your readers with a visual of what you’re trying to say. (..also an attention grabber)

Tip#7 is to write short paragraphs. I’m afraid of long paragraphs – they just look really looooonnngg.. and when I see them – I run away. Most people are like this, and you’re probably like this too. So, do us all a favor and break up your long paragraphs into short ones.

by Hector Cuevas

2.  Never take your catalog apart and put the pages in plastic sleeves so you can use the catalogs for the season.  Encourage your guest to take your catalog with them. I’ve gotten huge phone sales and bookings from people I’ve never met because they got my catalog from someone attending my show.

3.  Set up a booth at your county fair, summer festival, craft shows, and bridal shows.  Go any place where people are gathering.

4.  Wear something that has your company name on it. I’ve booked parties at the grocery store because I wore my logo shirt.

5.  Mention what you’re doing in your holiday letter. I live in Wisconsin and have gotten phone orders and book-shows from relatives in California because they knew what I was doing.

6.  Be a product of your product.  Bring your products to every event you can think of.  Do you sell baskets?  Are you going to a pot luck?  Make sure you bring your dish in a basket you sell.

7. Is the PTA, or another group having an auction or need a door prize? Provide them a product or a gift certificate.  Of course you will tuck in your business card and catalog.

8. Give your products as gifts.  Of course you will tuck in your business card and catalog.

Warm wishes and the best to you,
Denise

Get your name out there and let people know what you do!

2. Too Much “Glitter” ~ Did you know that those quick flashing banners, and glitter comments can cause some people to react with siezures? Think before you post. You don’t want to drive visitors away before they have a chance to get to know you.

3. Consistency ~ Even I struggle
with this one. I KNOW consistency is a big plus for getting indexed in the search engines. It does not have to be on a daily basis, but it does need to be at the very least, every three days. Although Daily is the best.

4. Personality ~ What I mean by this is, not letting your readers connect directly with you. Far to often, I visit blogs that don’t have anything about the owner, or what is going on in their lives, or even a link to another blog that allows me to learn about them as a person.
I don’t want to know just about your business specials. Who do you network with, who are your online partners, what do you do with your downtime? Make me feel like your someone I want in my life, not just another billboard.

5. “About Us” ~ NOT having an “About Us” page is like not having a mouth in real life. This gives your visitors a chance to know the real you, why you do what you do, and what keeps you motived.

6. “Contact Us” ~ This is a must have for ANY KIND OF WEBSITE. And don’t just use an email form. Give out your full information, your phone number, your address, and other ways to contact you online, via Skype, Yahoo IM, GoogleTalk, or however. I absolutely hate having to look for contact information, and if I can’t find it easy enough, I move on. I don’t want to deal with someone if I feel like they are hiding.

7. Graphics ~ Having graphics just to decorate a post does nothing for your readers. If you must have an image or two in your post, make sure they correspond with the post.  The RIGHT picture is worth 1000 words!

8. Networking and Commenting ~ This is a great way to get new readers to your blog. When you post a comment, make sure you have something to add to the conversation, not just a “great blog, I’m following now” or something so minor. Give readers of your comments a REASON to follow you links back to your blog!

9. Blogrolls ~ The biggest mistake I’m seeing with blogrolls, is that bloggers are connecting to everyone. If your blogging about Coupons and Daily Deals on the internet, you don’t need to blogroll with one that is about auto parts. Be careful who you connect with, check their rankings, their offers, and see that it fits in with what you are offering yourself. Compliment you own offers, don’t distract.

My Bloggers -> CLICK HERE

With nearly 33% of active Internet users utilizing social media sites every day,* social media sites are your greatest strategic asset to attract new customers and build brand awareness.

With the average in-house social media expert costing ~$84,000/year, including salary, benefits and tax costs, our solutions save you 90% and more than 13,000 hours per year while delivering the same results.

Maintaining an effective social media presence leverages customers, prospects, colleagues and contacts, and puts you in touch with fast-changing tides of industry trends, but it also steals productive hours from you and your workforce to maintain properly.

Our Social Media Programs are backed by our iron-clad satisfaction guarantee.

It’s Not A Pitch Zone

The most important thing to remember about social media is that it is not a place to blatantly and endlessly pitch your product or service. If you do this, then you will not get any favors from social media users, will get largely ignored and even receive bad reviews.

Social media is actually used for building relationships with potential clients in the market. There are a number of ways you can do this:

     • you can post helpful information (links) that helps them solve a problem.

     • you can personally chat with them to assist them.

     • you can create content addressing the needs of users and post it.

The bottom line is that you want to be seen as genuine and helpful. This way, word can get out that you’re the real deal and before you know it, people will become interested in what you have to provide in terms of products and services.

Pages

This is probably THE marketing tool out there on Facebook. On its website Facebook describes Pages as “a public Profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users.”

Of course, it dependents on the content you give out for people to use. You need to show them a reason to become a Fan of your Page as well as a reason for staying on.

EventsCreate events to be held at a certain date and time. Depending on your type of business, you can create one for a local or international audience. It can be any one of the following:

• seminar: It should be introductory and free but you could promote a paid one too.

• webinar: A seminar conducted online which anyone in the world can join.

• product/service launch: If you are about to launch a product or service, this is a way to gain attention.

To read her complete outlook on not every Customer a Good Customer.

VISIT

Why is networking important?

Learn why ‘Coin-operated networking’ is bad for business. It doesn’t work in the long-run.”

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-network-like-a-pro-2010-4#ixzz0nGks4MSv

Include in your Bio and/or custom background the names (or @usernames) of the people twittering from your company account. It’s also a good idea to include additional contact info, like email addresses.

Listen regularly for comments about your company, brand and products—and be prepared to address concerns, offer customer service or thank people for praise.

Tip: In addition to keeping an eye on your @messages, you can use our Saved Searches feature to easily track mentions of your product, brand, company, etc. From your Twitter home page, simply run a search, and then at the top of your results page, click “Save this search.” A link with your search term will appear on the right side of your page, and whenever you click it, you’ll get real-time results for that query. To delete a search, just head to the top of your results and click “Remove this search.”

Use a casual, friendly tone in your messages.

While you shouldn’t feel compelled to follow everyone who follows you, do respond to some questions or comments addressed to you.

If you like a particular message, retweet it. People often appreciate the sharing and amplification of their ideas, so look to retweet cool stuff.

Post links to articles and sites you think folks would find interesting—even if they’re not your sites or about your company.

Make sure your tweets provide some real value. You know better than we do what is valuable, but here are few examples to spark ideas:

Offer Twitter exclusive coupons or deals
Take people behind the scenes of your company
Post pictures from your offices, stores, warehouses, etc.
Share sneak peeks of projects or events in development
Don’t spam people. Twitter’s following model means that you have to respect the interests and desires of other people here or they’ll unfollow you. The most common way to run afoul of that understanding—and to thus look like a spammer—is to send unsolicited @messages or DMs, particularly when you include a promotional link.

Of course, if you run an account that focuses explicitly on sharing exclusive coupon codes or sale information, you’re probably just fine posting promos. But tread carefully, and consider explaining in your bio or background how the account works.

Tip: You can test the waters by sending just a few promos to start, and then continuing only if people show interest.

To make sure you’re not spamming folks, we also suggest you avoid the following:

Posting duplicate updates to an account: Posting the same update over and over throughout the day is considered spammy and a possible violation of our terms of service.
Cross-posting duplicate updates to multiple accounts: If you post the same update to multiple accounts, you could violate our terms of service.
Following churn: Following and unfollowing the same people repeatedly, as well as following and unfollowing those who don’t follow back, are both violations of our terms of service.

Stretch past your limits on a daily basis. That’s how you grow and evolve.
Don’t wait for perfection; do it now! Perfection’s the enemy of good enough.

Be careful of what you eat. It takes physical energy to succeed.
Hang around motivated people. The positive energy will rub off on you.

Geoffrey James has sold and written hundreds of features, articles and columns for national publications including Wired, Men’s Health, Business 2.0, SellingPower, Brand World, Computer Gaming World, CIO, The New York Times and (of course) BNET.

Check out his

Seven Rules for Keeping Motivated

Okay now you have a blog and you have your first article written.  You need to Research Keywords right?

These are great places to find keywords that people are using to search for help in answering their questions, or solving their problems.

Word Tracker
Search Terms
Overture
Adwords Tool

Example:  use  key words that people are using to describe their problem. If you sell aloe based skincare as I do, you would type in things like blemished skin, oily skin, dry skin into your keyword research tool and see what kind of results you get.  Also try to find a synonym or a related combination.

This may require repeating a process, but it is well worth it.

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