7 Expert Blogging Tips for 2020 by @DONNAAMOS

November 20, 2019 by Donna Amos Leave a Comment

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor

Blogging is on fire! In fact, social media and SEO expert Neal Schaffer claims that, “Blogging is as effective a marketing tool as ever. In fact, it’s supercharged.”

A recent study by Data Box, entitled “The Shift in Your Content Marketing Mix: 25 Marketers On What’s Changed in 2 Years” showed that 68% of marketers find blogging more effective than they did only 2 years ago. And I believe the other 32% are likely doing it wrong!

The nature of blogging has changed, and so must your focus if you want blogging to remain an effective tool in your marketing arsenal. Follow these 7 tips that expert bloggers will be leveraging in 2020.

READ

Expert bloggers are well-informed. They are voracious readers. They view reading as a part of blogging, a process of discovery through which they keep a steady finger on the pulse of their target audience. Here are some suggested reading materials:

Read what your audience is reading. This takes some research, but learning their interests helps you better answer their questions in your writing, another tip we will examine below.
Read what your competition is writing. If they are doing a good job of audience research, you can learn from them what others are reading. And, you can get some tips on how you can write better content than your competitors.
Read what major influencers are writing about your niche. Influencers lead large audiences, so keeping up with what concerns them helps prepare you for relevant writing.
Read the latest industry material concerning your business. Stay current with the latest news and developments in your field.
Read for fun. Reading for enjoyment is a great source for illustrations and stories to use in your own writing.

A variation on reading is listening to podcasts or audiobooks. Too busy to read much? Leverage your time and listen to helpful podcasts or audiobooks while commuting, gardening, mowing, doing other chores, or just relaxing.

Engage the World

Very often, our best writing comes from our experiences. Sitting at a desk all day in isolation, week after week, doesn’t breed many interesting experiences. And it’s unhealthy. Get outside and engage with people. Have interesting conversations. Meet friends for coffee and discover what is going on in the lives of other people.

Travel as often as possible. You don’t have to go to Spain or Australia to have great experiences. Explore your hometown as if you were a tourist. Take a tour and see what you have missed. Go for a drive and take roads you have yet to travel. Take along a notebook or recorder and a camera (or at least your smartphone) and make notes about what you see and hear. A life lived well is the best fodder for writing.

Emphasize Quality Over Quantity

Each new Google algorithm that is introduced puts more emphasis on quality content than the last. That’s because Internet users are demanding better quality material. The Internet is filled with innumerable pages of information on every conceivable topic. That means to attract users, your material must be not just better than average, but better than 90%.

Long-form posts, “definitive guides,” and skyscraper content that provides tons of value is what Internet searchers are clicking on the most. ContentFly puts long-form (between 1,000 and 7,000 words) content of high quality as the most important successful blog writing trend for 2020.

Specialize in Your Favorite Topic

If the best way to grow your business is to find a specific niche, the same should apply to your blogging. While you may write about related topics, 80% of your blogs should focus directly on your niche topic. You should become known as THE specialist on that topic in your business. Your website needs to become THE place to go to get up-to-date, accurate, relevant, and helpful information about your niche.

That kind of specialization doesn’t come overnight. You may need to take a class, study more, engage in extensive research, or more to become THE answer guy or girl for your niche. But if you choose to focus on a specific topic relating to your business, no one should know more about it than you.

Answer Questions People Are Asking

Much of the information on the Internet is irrelevant because it doesn’t scratch where Internet users have an itch. It doesn’t answer the questions that people are asking. And if you don’t answer their question relating to your business or topic, they will quickly go somewhere else that does and bookmark that site to return later.

This involves research, but expert bloggers do what it takes to learn what people are asking within their own business niche. Why waste your limited time writing something that no one cares about? If your goal in blogging is to drive traffic to your business, relevancy should be at the top of why you write blog posts at all.

Pay Attention to SEO

Search engine optimization is more important than ever before. Blogging is no longer just about writing. Expert bloggers also engage in keyword research, creative writing, linking and backlinking, and page design in order to give their work every chance of being ranked highly by Google and other search engines.

And in our current society, that also means paying attention to local and voice search SEO, especially if your business has a physical location. Local and voice SEO can be the key to getting found and making a sale almost 60% of the time when a growing number of Internet searches use smartphones and/or digital assistants.

Get the Word Out

The best content available on any subject means nothing to you or anyone else if no one can find it. I’m amazed at bloggers who write and publish but never spread the word. There is no worldwide alert system that automatically shares with every Internet user that you just published a post. You have to get the word out yourself. Here are some popular and effective ways to do that.

Social media – Post about new content on every social media channel you use. Post the link, but include relevant images, snippets of text, and even reader comments to entice users to click and read. Every piece of content you publish should enter a regular social media posting schedule for regular, recurring posting.
Video – Creating a video that coincides with your blog posts is dynamite, and so is sharing that video link across your social media channels. You can also create brief promo videos for Facebook and Instagram and even YouTube that promote your latest content in different ways to attract audiences.
Email – Your email newsletter should regularly contain a summary of your latest blog posts. You should also send a brief email to your mailing list to inform subscribers when you post new material.

Expert bloggers in 2020 will be going farther and working harder than ever before to ensure their material meets the needs of their target audience with high-value content. Will you be among them?

Donna Amos

Donna Amos is passionate about helping Solopreneurs grow their business using everything digital and publishing. She has 30 years experience in sales and marketing for small business. She believes the best gift you can give another is a word of encouragement.

https://www.solopreneursllc.com/

Stages of Success by @SBSLEducSoltns

October 29, 2019 by SJ Barakony Leave a Comment

[ ‘S o S’ ] = Leveraging Stages to Earn Something More: Significance

Flying @ 35K ft

As entrepreneurs, we’ve often heard how important it is to be successful.

And, as so many of us also know, success is defined in so many different ways, through lots of different life experiences & lenses, that there could be a fairly large library filled with content on ..

What is success?

How to be successful?

Who is a success & Why?

Where can success be learned?

To be clear, the stages that will be discussed below all DO feed into this ‘black box’ known as success, however, in my reasoned view, if each is leveraged unto one another, you’ll earn something far more impactful in the long term: Significance.

Success vs. Significance

It’s left to you, the reader, to decide what you seek to pursue. A quick web search returns oodles of success quotes & related content:

Click HERE , then HERE to dip a toe ever so slightly into the ocean: The video & infographic in the latter are wonderfully displayed, by the by!

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”

―Peter F. Drucker

Turning the page to significance, one of the best sources to land on? THIS one.

Our businesses can either drive us, as their owner/founders, to a significant life, or our lives can be the spark on the embers of the business, turning it from just surviving, to a modicum of success, and perhaps significance.

So, the road, visualized as two lanes, does have one going in one direction, and the other in its opposite.

“The difference between real life and a story is that life has significance, while a story must have meaning. The former is not always apparent, while the latter always has to be, before the end.”

― Vera Nazarian

Breaking down the stages

I contend that each stage can be swapped for another, so the order below isn’t as important as the very high level explanation of the stage. And, if you happen to have multiple business ventures, you might even leverage the 5 stages differently, if & when you choose to pursue significance in either, or more.

Mental

There are miles upon miles of created content online that talks up the vast importance of an entrepreneur’s mental mindset – the ‘inner game’ between the ears, so to say.

To be successful, you might’ve already noticed how you might ( or already have ) had to tune out cynics, critics, and unhealthy skeptics.

How it is often best to replace, 1:1, the mass media’s many arms with podcasts, webinars, audio books, and the like.

Yes, that quote about your mind being a garden, and having to pull the weeds? It’s quite accurate.

Cultural

Your workplace culture, or the culture ( coffee shop/cafe? Coworking space? ) in which you invest time if not at a physical location of some sort, definitely is a puzzle needing solving.

Culture is an amorphous term, just like success; many thought leaders come to varying conclusions.

Yet, if you’re the founder or owner of a business with staff on payroll, you know how crucial culture is; your customer service; turnover; &/or engagement/satisfaction are each outward signs of how healthy it is.

In this post from a few years ago, I opined that culture feeds into vision, then strategy, & lastly, tactics.

Social [ Capital ]

Your professional network/s are immensely valuable; while it’s best understood that clientele can come from any one of many concentric circles ( perhaps a connector led to to a center of influence to this individual ), a very important concept is that of social capital.

While there are many phenomenal resources out there, one of the most impactful is found in the work of Mr. Robert Putnam — linked below is his ‘primer’ website, which by itself is chock full of goodness and explains well why this is a stage of success.

Financial

Whether or not you believe in retaining the services of a financial advisor/planner, or otherwise, you’re definitely encouraged to embrace the vast value in understanding the financial stage.

In my own professional journey, which began with one business venture as a side gig/hustle, one of the most impactful stages I ever engaged in?

= Moving from a consumerist/W-2 to a producer/entrepreneurial view of dollars & cents.

Since the vast majority of conventional classrooms in our nations don’t include much, usually any, content on money/literacy, let alone wisdom on how to invest, spend, and/or save money, it is left to us, as the owner/founder, to tap into the deep rivers of resources.

Leader[ship] -> Legacy

This stage alone could comprise a series of volumes, if not another separate library, alongside the success.

In this recent post, I unpacked variants of leadership. It wasn’t all encompassing, however, feel welcome to re(read) it and combine this stage with that post, to equal greater impact.

An informal mentor of mine teaches that one’s influence ( Excellent podcast HERE ) flows to impact ( which we’ll intentionally define as significance, as you leverage all 5 stages ) , then the entrepreneur reaches what she needs to be a viable business: Income.

Intentionally moving from leading to legacy is a topic that deserves its own post; yet, it’s included above since both seem to be deeply intertwined:

leaving a legacy necessitates leading, just as much as the river of influence x impact feeds the ocean of legacy.

Suggested Social Follows

As always, you’re encouraged to …

… use this monthly post as a jumping off point; take it as the sound of the starter’s pistol in track & field:

Ready ( reading this ). Set ( click on the links ). & … Go! ( invest in content, set goals, et al. )

Social Capital Primer

Success Magazine

Servant Leadership Institute

Great By Choice

Rich Dad Radio Show

In short

A high level overview
Comparing 2 ‘S’ words
The 5 Stages – one by one
Recommended Twitter follows
Additional content

Thank YOU for reading!

____________________________________________

SJ Barakony

SJ Barakony is a serial entrepreneur, futurist, & connector.

He lives in Ohio & is the Founder of Service Before Self Leadership: An Educational Solutions Provider.

He offers four highly customizable solutions to encourage families, individuals, faith institutions, & business owners to create & cultivate lifelong learning cultures in our homes & workplaces.

He’s been a guest on an educational podcast; been interviewed for an online small business community; is a guest blogger for Innovate NA; and has been an invited speaker five separate times for HECOA.

He believes strongly in youth & social entrepreneurship: He continues to serve two chapters of the YEA program (student mentor, mock judge, ad hoc consultant ) & has co-facilitated a session of the SeaChange Accelerator program.

He serves as the TDD for Cleveland & Columbus (Ohio) for the H7 Network.

He also recently became an educational advisor for Tessr.io, a startup in the exciting world of blockchain/cryptocurrencies that will be establishing a cutting edge educational foundation.

10 Qualities to Look For When Hiring a Marketing Manager by @lucyrk78

October 28, 2019 by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan Leave a Comment

by Lucy Render-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

In an industry where the only constant is evolution, how do you know what to look for when hiring a Marketing Manager? If you were looking for an accountant, you would know to look for someone with accounting skills and who went to school specifically aiming to work in accounting, but very rare are marketing managers who possess an actual degree in marketing. And that’s ok! Because I believe that if people have these 10 traits, they will be just as good (and usually better) than someone that spent four years or more studying what I have been focused on learning for the past 16.

Boundless Enthusiasm: Great marketers have passion for what they do oozing out of them. You never doubt they love this field, and you will never hear them say “God. Work is SO boring.”
Creativity: Great marketers don’t do things “the way it’s always been done.” It isn’t that we’re trying to reinvent the wheel, but I’d argue that we’re always trying to look at that wheel in a way that no one else ever has before. And we can make you look at it that way, too. Great marketers are willing to take risks with what some may call a “crazy idea.” They aren’t afraid to fail because the WIN feels so good when those ideas connect. I’m willing to bet these people have notebooks full of ideas scribbled down, and at the ready wherever they are and ideas might come.
Loyalty: I might not drink the beverage that I worked on when starting my marketing career, and in fact, I actually drink their main competitor daily, but I go on auto-pilot if I hear someone say something about that first brand that isn’t true. Great marketers don’t just work for a brand, they live that brand. That brand’s products or services are part of their daily lives.
Know Their Audience: I always think of the line “I’ve made a living out of reading people’s faces…” when I think about what I do. You generally only have a couple of seconds to grab someone’s attention, and great marketers need to be able to tailor their message (I hate the word ‘pitch’) to differnet people so it makes sense to THEM. For example, I’m not going to try to sell someone in their 80s on the benefits of coconut water for strenuous workouts, nor am I going to talk about why a mental focus supplement is great for students, to a mom with 2 kids in her grocery cart and a very pregnant belly.
Adaptable: No matter how much you plan, or how good you are, problems arise. Plans change. New legalities pop up. A great marketer can pivot and adapt and switch their entire focus at any point in any project. They don’t get too tied into one plan.
They are Great Listeners: If you marketers are anything like me, you love to watch people. Find out what they like, where they go, what they do. What their habits are, what makes them NEED a product…We know what questions to ask to help draw people out and allow us to get to them, when we begin as total strangers.
They’re Great Sales People: It might be a cliché, but it’s repeated so often for a reason. Great marketers CAN truly “sell ice to an Eskimo.” And they can get that sale before the Eskimo even realizes he needs ice. If you ever come across someone in marketing that hasn’t made sales, or thinks they don’t or won’t need to, move along! If sales puts items on a shelf, it’s the marketers that take it off, and that is because they know how to communicate clearly and show people WHY they need your product or service.
See The Big Picture: It’s so easy to get bogged down in details, who needs to go where, looking at analytics, becoming overly focused on wanting to attach the brand to a specific event…it can be hard to take a step back, but we need to. The overall goals of the company must always be top of mind, and our first thought when deciding what to get involved with, what can wait, and what we can pass on.
Storytellling: You definitely want someone that can tell great stories that not only draw people in, but are able to relate to. To get people excited about and choose your company over any others in the same category, you need someone that can get people to FEEL deeply and emotionally connect with the stories you are telling. You want someone that can get people to see themselves already using your brand in their lives, not just thinking it might be fun to try once. You want consumers, both potential and existing, to see themselves in the brand stories you’re marketing manager is telling.
Team Player: Great marketers know they don’t work alone. Marketers best work is not born out of a boardroom or silo. Sales, Finance, Logistics…marketing is dependent and must work well with all of the employees in these various divisions. Teamwork is KEY to great marketing, and great marketers are humble enough to realize this.

I wish Top 10 Lists went to 11. There are so many other qualities that great marketers possess. What are some you don’t see on this list? Tweet me @lucyrk78 and let me know!

Lucy Rendler-Kaplan

Lucy is the founder of Arkay Marketing & PR. A writer from an early age (who could forget the 88 page “Bears” novel from an outspoken 3 year old?!) she’s excited to be writing for She Owns It and loves the feeling of camaraderie and empowerment of the group. When she’s not staying in and writing marketing plans or celebrating wins with clients, she can be found taking selfies with her 15 year old mutt, Desi.

https://arkaymarketing.com

5 Ways Brands Can Make the Most Out of Instagram Stories by @lucyrk78

August 9, 2019 by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan 1 Comment

by Lucy Render-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

Instagram stories can be gold for marketers looking to reach a higher number of people on one of the fastest-growing social platforms. Stories keep viewers on the platform longer, meaning that brands have the opportunity to keep a captive audience on their page longer. Not only that, but Stories beat the dreaded Instagram algorithm! This is because they appear on feeds in chronological order. Engagement rates are higher and are seen by more people than photos and videos posted to your Instagram feed, so you’re missing out if you’re not already creating Stories.

Here are some of our tips on how to best take advantage of Instagram Stories:

Polls

Users can add interactive polls to their Stories. This is a great way to get your audience more engaged and hear their thoughts on any topic. Do you want to launch a new product? Or are you looking at choosing between two possible flavors for an existing product? Throw up a poll and get your target audience to weigh in.

Instagram Takeovers

These are great for growing your following quickly. You can either take over another Instagrammer’s account, or have an influencer take over your account for a short period of time. (we recommend under 24 hours). This is a great way to work with another influencer where you both can benefit and expand both of your audiences. Make sure to choose your influencer carefully – align with someone that works in your niche and will help contribute to your overall marketing goals. Done well, it will build authenticity and connect you to a whole new set of followers who then will engage with your brand.

User Generated Content

Along the same lines of Instagram takeovers, you can increase engagement and followers by utilizing UGC (user generated content). When people mention your brand, you can hit “Add to your story” and post their content in your Stories. This way you can mention your followers and make them feel part of your brand story. People like to be acknowledged and a simple tag of their profile in your story can go a long way.

Repurpose Your Blog

The best thing about blogs is that you can find ways to share the same content in a myriad of ways. Instagram Stories offer you a great opportunity to utilize blog posts and turn them into little mini articles. The most obvious examples here would be how-to articles and recipes. You can break them down into a few slides that you can visually display with voiceover or text layover in your stories.

This is easy to do.

First, choose your topic. Then use Canva or another graphic design app to create the images to accompany your Story. Then, upload the images in sequence and your story is created! Don’t forget to include a call to action at the end, to truly engage your audience. It’s always important to let people know what you would like them to do next. Perhaps it’s visiting your website – utilize the swipe up feature to take viewers there directly once they’ve watched your Story.

Create Exclusive Offers

If you are looking for sales, Instagram Stories can move consumers through the purchasing funnel quickly. Here’s our secret tip: Create a story that has a special offer. Add photos or videos clearly showing what the offer is and let viewers know that in 24 hours, when this story disappears, so does the offer. When people feel that they have to act fast to get something, it intrinsically increases the value of the offer. Add a CTA (call-to-action) within the story letting people know to visit the link in your bio to claim the offer or you can have viewers swipe up to a landing page where they will claim the offer.

There are as many ways that brands and marketers can use Instagram Stories to their advantage as there are people using them. These are just the tip of the iceberg to get your creative juices flowing! How likely are YOU to interact with or be motivated by other’s Stories? Do you check for new Stories regularly? What brands have you seen making the most of Stories?

Lucy Rendler-Kaplan

https://arkaymarketing.com

How to Slay Blogging Overwhelm by @marissamonline

July 9, 2019 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Photo by Eugene Chystiakov from Pexels

by Marissa McDaniel

So, you decided you’re going to start a blog and you are pumped! Blogging seems like a great way to express yourself and maybe you’ll even make a little extra money with your blog. You start your blog, thinking it’s going to be super easy and fun and then it hits you.. Blogging is hard.

You start with the web hosting and before you know it you’re dabbling with web design, branding, actually writing and coming up with blog post ideas, email marketing, affiliate marketing, legal disclosures and your to-do list of blogging tasks is suddenly extending all the way down the street. At this point you’re wondering what you got yourself into. You realize you have no idea what you’re doing and you’re seriously thinking about throwing in the towel.

Believe me, I’ve been there and so have thousands of other bloggers! I’m here to tell you not to throw in the towel just yet. There is hope and there are ways to combat the overwhelming feeling that you can’t seem to shake.

Check out these 4 easy ways you can start slaying the overwhelm today!

1. Goal Setting

One of the biggest ways to combat blogging overwhelm is to create monthly or even weekly goals. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you have a massive list of to-do’s but by breaking these to-do’s down into goals with a specific time frame, they can become manageable. Try setting realistic social media goals, writing goals, traffic goals and income goals. This will help you assess exactly what you should focus on, what progress you are making and what areas might need a little extra help.

2. Automation

Thankfully there are some ways you can automate your blog and social media processes. For starters, you can automate all of your social media posts with a variety of social media scheduling tools like Tailwind, Hootsuite and Buffer. With the help of scheduling tools, you can schedule your social media content for a week or even a full month in the matter of a couple hours. This is a great way to save you tons of time while creating a social media presence and increasing blog traffic.

As for email marketing, you can also create autoresponders and email sequences that will be sent out when someone purchases a product, downloads a freebie or joins your email list. This is a great way to introduce yourself to new email subscribers, to provide an offer and build trust with your audience. Autoresponders are also a great addition to sales funnels if you have any products you are aiming to sell. Once you your email marketing set up, you can create unique sequences, automations and more to create a unique experience for each subscriber.

3. Schedule

It can be so easy to get wrapped up in creating as many blog posts as possible when first starting out, but this can make the overwhelm even worse! Instead of trying to publish a ton of content, create a content calendar. If you want to publish blog posts twice a week then make it a point to publish a blog post every Tuesday and Thursday. Come up with a schedule for your blog posts and content so you know exactly what you need to be working on and when. This will also help your readers know exactly when to look for new content on your blog and can promote returning visitors.

4. Connect With Other Bloggers

Other bloggers can be a great resource! They’ve all been through the process and they understand how overwhelming blogging can be. Communicate with other bloggers, ask them how they solved certain problems or handled a certain situation. The blogging community is extremely supportive and is always willing to help out whenever they can. Not only that, but many bloggers are always looking for ways to save time and make life easier so connecting with another blogger might allow you discover a new product or tool that just might change your life.

By setting goals, automating your processes, scheduling content and connecting with other bloggers, there’s no reason you can’t slay the blogging overwhelm! These strategies will also save you time and help you create some clear blogging plans so your blog can grow and thrive.

How do you slay blogging overwhelm? Do you have other suggestions? If, so share them in the comments!

—————————————————————————————-

Marissa McDaniel is the founder of Marissa McDaniel Online LLC which is a blog and online business focused on helping women ditch their 9-5’s and create a life of financial freedom. She frequently writes about blogging tips and tools, online money-making opportunities and offers her very own online course to help other bloggers create passive income streams using online courses, sales funnels and affiliate programs.

Marissa resides in the Denver, Colorado area with her boyfriend and two hiking cats. When not spending time on the lake, she’s likely reading a motivational book, eating a snack or working on her next business endeavor.

Guest Post

Bloggers Wanted! She Owns It Open Call For Featured Contributors!

June 13, 2019 by Melissa Stewart Leave a Comment

by Melissa Stewart

She Owns It is seeking a few amazing women (and men) to share their inspiration and expertise with the She Owns It community. We’re very selective about our contributors. Featured contributors will be selected based on their level of expertise and their ability to provide the content that will deliver the most value to our readers.

-> APPLY HERE! <-

Application DEADLINE is June 28th.

WHO WE ARE

She Owns It is an online hub. Our mission is to inspire and empower women to turn their ideas into reality by starting and growing their own successful businesses.

Our purpose is to inform and inspire by providing the resources, connections and tools necessary to BYOB – build your own business and be your own boss.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

You want to make a difference in this space, to have your story and expertise heard. You want to give a fresh perspective to our audience. We want that too.

We are looking for bloggers with an established online presence and an area of expertise that helps our business focused community grow. We look for contributors that can provide original, practical, real-world examples that show real data, real successes — and even real failures.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash

Featured contributors will be asked to create original content for She Owns It that will not be posted on their blogs, but that can be linked to from their blogs. Posts must be in compliance with FTC guidelines, with proper credit and links back to all images.

Yes, video posts are accepted.

We are not able to provide compensation at this time, but this will be a great opportunity for contributors to receive exposure to a new audience across the web and all social media platforms. Contributor’s head shots and bios will also be added to the contributors page and promoted across social media.

Contributor Categories

Here are some of the contributor categories we’re looking for:

Entrepreneurship	Graphic Design	Startup Stories
Small Business	Branding	Female Founders
Marketing	Influencer Marketing	Blogging
Social Media	Freelancing & Side Hustles	Podcasting
Venture Capital	Crowdfunding	Accounting & Legal
Leadership	Healthy Living	Your Expertise

OR tell us your expertise and maybe we can create a category just for you!

HOW OFTEN WE EXPECT IT

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Featured contributors must be able to commit to partnering with She Owns It from January through June 2019 and writing a minimum of 6 posts.. One post per month, for six months. After your six month commitment, you’re welcome to stay on and continue as a Featured Contributor. Many of our writers do and we are grateful for every post!

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, complete the Featured Contributor Application.

Although we would like to reply to everyone, if you don’t happen to hear from us in the next 2-3 weeks, it means that someone else has been selected. Thank you so much for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you!

-> APPLY HERE! <-

Application DEADLINE is June 28th.

Melissa Stewart

Melissa Stewart is the founder of SheOwnsIt.com. She is a Purveyor of Possibility, Entrepreneur Advocate and Coffee Addict. She believes that behind every successful woman is her story. What’s your story?

https://sheownsit.com/

Why Should Your Website Have a Blog? by @DONNAAMOS

May 17, 2019 by Donna Amos Leave a Comment

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor

If your business strategy includes inbound marketing, business blogging is essential. If you’re new to inbound marketing or blogging, you may have some questions. Why should your website have a blog? What is it? Why do we do it? What’s the goal of it all?

According to HubSpot, “Business blogging is a marketing tactic that uses blogging to get your business more online visibility. A business blog is a marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.) that helps support business growth.”

Here are four major ways blogging helps support business growth, and why you should have a blog on your website.

Blogs Drive Traffic

A blog on your business website provides the opportunity for you to create relevant content for your customers and potential clients. This is a very effective marketing tactic to drive traffic back to your website.

You have a 434% higher chance of being ranked highly on search engines if you feature a blog as part of your website (Tech Client).
Businesses using blogs as part of their content marketing mix get 67% more leads than those who don’t (Hubspot).

The blog on your business website becomes the foundation for all your social media platforms. Posting links and relevant visuals from your blog articles to all your social sites gives your followers a reason to click through to your website. Plus, you can also post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to drive traffic to specific landing pages of your website.

Blogs Increase SEO

Blogs substantially increase your SEO. Fresh, quality content is still the key to beating out your competitors on search engine results pages like Google. Use keywords in your articles. List out the keywords, topics, and categories for which you want your business to be found, then these words and related expressions when writing your posts.

And, whether you actively seek these out or not, blogging regularly about your business, industry, products, services, or customer lifestyle will naturally increase your search keywords. Being intent about your words will only increase results. Keywords and topics on your website are a significant way in which Google (and other search engines) find your site for these searched words.

Moreover, don’t forget voice searches that consumers now perform through platforms like Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana. If you asked any of these voice search digital assistants where your business is located when it’s open, or what you offer, what would they say? According to AdWeek, 67 million voice-assisted devices will be in use in the U.S. by 2019. This changes the way that digital content is managed. And, 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in the last year alone. Voice-powered services have created a seismic shift in how consumers find information about your brand. Voice search needs to be part of your SEO/content strategy.

Blogs Position Your Brand as an Industry Leader

Well-written, helpful articles position your company as an industry leader. By posting topics that resonate with your market and show your knowledge, you are marketing your skills for your business, service or product too.

If you are a retailer, for example, write blog posts about your products. Your customers will get to know you as the knowledge source for the products they want. If you are in B2B, post articulate, well-researched articles about your services. Become the hub or the place to get answers, for your industry.

You are building trust, too. The more you can show that you are well-versed in your field, the more likely your consumer will trust you to supply what they need. Your customers additionally benefit from the learning you provide them.

Blogs Develop Better Customer Relationships

Blogs provide another source to deepen the connection with your customer. By connecting directly on your website, your clients are able to get to know your business or product from the comfort of your online home. As discussed above, build trust by being a source of information. Consumers like to be informed, and they will remember that you are the one teaching them.

Also, just as on your social media sites, respond to comments and interact with consumers. If they have questions about a product you are writing about, respond to them directly on your website. Unlike many social sites, a blog is generally searchable on your site for some time. Your website comments last longer than a Twitter response or Facebook post. Other customers will see your interactions and learn from them, too.

A blog is a fantastic tool for your business in our digital age. If you don’t currently have one, start one and upload some high-quality content. If you currently use blogging in your marketing, how do you think it is working? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Share them in the comments below.

Donna Amos

https://www.solopreneursllc.com/

Why blogging is your business’ secret weapon by @CasiYost

March 13, 2019 by Casi Yost Leave a Comment

by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

Blogging seems to have become a dirty word with business owners. That and SEO are scary things to most people. I firmly believe they are critical to growing your business and give you an edge considering your competitors don’t want to do them either.

I have a few reasons why you need to be blogging yesterday and what it actually does for your business:

Grows your Know / Like / Trust value with customers and peers
SEO: Casts a larger net to capture more keywords
Become an authority to help others
Repurpose content to use on other social media platforms
Helps you answer customers frequently asked questions

Know/Like/Trust:

Your customers want to know who the person is behind the website and brand. They can’t unless you’re constantly engaging them, showing them your expertise and providing new content. The way that I like to do this is create blog posts for other photographers on the gear I use, how I manage my workflow and other tips I can give to help them with their business. For couples, I have discussed how to elope in Oregon, the details of planning the timeline for your wedding, etc. These blog posts allow them to see that I care and that I know what I’m doing.

SEO:

When your customers type something into a search bar, you want to be able to rank for all of those keywords, right? Well blog post titles are exactly what should pop up on those searches. So when you make your blog posts, they should be targeted to answer questions that they might pose. All the questions. Take time to research what they are searching for, and answer those questions in posts. It will cast a huge keyword net and capture more people that way.

Become an Authority:

When you blog, you allow people to see you are an expert in your field. Your peers as well as customers will come to you for answers and as a result, you increase your brand loyalty. We all want that right? Well you have to give your customers, peers and everyone else reasons why they should trust you. Being consistent and giving good content is the way to do that.

Repurpose Content:

Ever feel like you are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to creating good content for all the platforms? Well when you create a blog post, you can use that in your emails, direct people to your website by linking it on facebook, etc. Pinterest is huge and having your blog posts constantly looping in Pinterest is a great way to repurpose content, especially what I call “evergreen” content. Evergreen content is content that can be useful no matter how old it is. Things like “what photography gear I use for weddings” is an example because this probably won’t change from year to year, and it’s helpful for new photographers. Repurposing content and recycling won’t make your viewers and clients get annoyed, because most likely they may not see the post, they might have forgotten, or you have a large number of new customers that haven’t seen it.

Helps to FAQ’s from customers and peers:

I get about six or seven DM’s a day from other photographers asking about my gear, or what I have done to grow my business, and this is great! However, my answers never change. If they do, I update my blog post. I want to give the same consistent, and well thought answer to everyone. So what I can do is direct them to that blog post and they can re-read it as much as they want. Plus it has pretty pictures and links to other resources, but that’s beside the point. Why is this critical? It saves you time and allows you to maintain a great relationship by giving them a good answer.

How to get people to read your post? Use social media! As soon as I make a new blog post, I:

Put a link to my post on my personal and business Facebook page
Put a link on LinkedIn. It’s algorithm is super user friendly and similar to what Facebook and Instagram were like five years ago
Talk about it in your Instagram stories while you’re at it
Put the link in your bio on your Instagram page
Send the new blog post out to your email list
Share the post with people you think would be interested

So save yourself time, invest in blogging because it will do more for your business than you realize. If you don’t feel like you’re a great writer, have someone proofread. As long as what you are delivering is good content and not fluff, you will see how it helps you and your customers.

Let me know what you think! Share this and message me with questions on all my social media accounts!

XO,

Casi

Casi Yost

Casi Yost, Wedding Photographer and Community over Competition advocate.

Casi is a wedding photographer and educator based out of Oregon. When she isn’t dancing it up with coupes at weddings, she hosts workshops for women wanting to start their own photography business. She is a passionate about community over competition and how it can heal broken businesses.

Find Casi on her websites casiyost.com and beyondworkshop.net or Instagram.

https://casiyost.com

Tools to Help You Find Content That Will Engage Your Readers by @donnaamos

December 21, 2018 by Donna Amos 1 Comment

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor

Successful content marketing involves producing quality content that your readers want to read. If the most well-written piece you could possibly produce doesn’t resonate with your audience, it’s useless. While simply writing on topics relevant to your business niche seems adequate, it is really like shooting in the dark. You need to be writing on topics that relate to your business, but they must also be topics that your audience currently finds interesting.

To discover this, you must listen to your audience and see what interests them at the present time. What current topic is all the rage? What current event relating to your business or industry is causing a stir? Sometimes called news hijacking, this practice of following trending news is a great way to cash in on trending topics to attract readers and connections.

What I am NOT advocating is simply writing what everyone else is writing. Your content must still be fresh, original, and useful to your readers. That doesn’t come from parroting the same lines as everyone else. But you can discover trending or popular topics and write about them from your viewpoint, or demonstrate how your business or product can impact the conversation.

There are some great tools available that can make harvesting topics much easier for you. I’ll briefly highlight each one and provide some simple suggestions for how to use them effectively.

Solopreneur Connect

Solopreneur Connect is a great social media listening tool. It can help you listen to conversations that relate to your business or industry niche. You can read conversations on what your target audience needs and their problems. Solopreneur Connect can show you what interests your audience by allowing you to search for relevant keywords in conversations on different social media platforms.

To set up Hootsuite for listening to conversations:

Sign in to your Solopreneur Connect account.
Click on ‘search.’ You will see an option to setup – keyword search.
Click on ‘Keywords’ and type as many keywords as you want to use. Type in one at a time and click on add after each.
You can then add a location if you want to do so.

Solopreneur Connect’s comprehensive social listening tools empower marketers to execute brand monitoring and analyze social data for marketing insights. Gather introspective, contextual insights to topics, hashtags and influencers relative to your mentions to find new and incremental marketing opportunities.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is another tool that allows you to know what your audience is currently sharing. For example, I typed “writing” into the tool. The free version only allows users to see what is most popular by shares over the past year. The result was a piece about whether or not to use only one space after sentences from the Washington Post. Since May 2018 it has had 349.9k shares across all platforms. Pretty popular.

The paid membership allows for much more versatility, including what is currently being shared about your chosen keywords, even on each social media platform. It would be worth the cost, considering the other features included, to use this one tool to analyze what is currently being discussed in your industry niche.

Google Alerts

Another tool you can use is the Google alert tool. It is very useful. You can set alerts for your keywords and when such keywords come up, you will receive notifications in your email inbox.

For example, if you are in the writing niche and you want to know what is trending, you can create an alert for it using Google alert like this:

Type http://www.google.com/alerts into your browser
Log in with your Google account
Enter the keywords you want to monitor separated by commas
Click on options
Select how often you want to receive the alert. (choosing “as it happens” keeps you constantly updated)
Select the sources i.e. news, video, blog, etc. (selecting automatic covers all the sources)
Select the language, choose the region, and choose the number of results
Select the email where your alerts will be delivered
Click on create

Pretty soon, you will start receiving alerts in your inbox.

Answer the Public

With Answer the Public you enter the keyword you are interested in and it will return the phrases that actual users are typing into Google and Bing. The how, what, where, when, can, are, etc. If you know exactly what is being searched for you can provide the solutions that are being searched for. It’s perhaps one of the best but most underutilized sources of research for content ideas. Until now…

Now that you have some great tools to help, you can harvest topics and set priorities for writing content that resonates with your audience. This content will drive users to your site, and to your business.

What other audience listening tools do you like to use? Share them in the comments below.

Donna Amos

https://www.solopreneursllc.com/

Time = Gold (and … money = silver) by @SBSLEducSoltns

November 16, 2018 by SJ Barakony Leave a Comment

by SJ Barakony | Featured Contributor

Putting Productivity ahead of Busy-ness in Business

“I’m so busy!”

“How are you? How’s business? Busy!”

There are mild variants, yet, the theme is constant: The individual is … say it with me now …. B-u-s-y.

Since when did our nation’s backbone, entrepreneurs, decide that this status was the end all, be all, in conversation, let alone in practice?

Let’s reframe. First, though, empathy & grace are necessary.

I know: There’s a LOT on your plate; I’m sure many of these are on your calendar, scribbled on sticky notes, and/or are pop up reminders on your smart device: Payroll. Review insurance coverage. Talk to the V.A; accountant; and/or financial advisor. Respond to client messages. Etc …

Still, we shouldn’t aspire to busy-ness; when we stop, if merely for a moment & reflect, we realize that as entrepreneurs, we’re solution providers & producers.

Thus, the more we produce, the more pro-ductive we are: it’s productivity which we should strive for, a 1:1 replacement for the ‘busyness’ that is our default answer to so many questions.

Painting a picture to aid in this mindset shift, we revisit the 1st few words …

Time = Gold.

… and now can move to implement this truth in our business first ( self-leadership ), then, model it for staff + customers, lastly, replicating it to other entrepreneurs in our network.

Those who are wise won’t be busy, and those who are too busy can’t be wise.”
― Lin Yutang

Click to Tweet

Lin Yutang #quote

Precious Metals

Gold :

Time is an irreplaceable asset, just like gold. Gold is finite & very rare: Its value has held firm for thousands of years & once was used regularly in commerce worldwide. Just like there’s always been a 24 hour day, the amount of gold available for mining is constant; fluctuation in the ‘price’ of gold is due to the underlying currencies, just like your productivity ties to how well you lead yourself.

Silver :

Money is a reflection, a flag, which signals how much value you’ve added to the marketplace; your monetized service, product, &/or specialized knowledge is your entrepreneurial bridge b/w problem identified & solution provided. We look to silver now, as its value is also stable, yet it’s more abundant in nature than gold. So, with an abundance mentality x growth mindset, you know you can grow your share of this not fixed pie.

Two must read books

Without a shred of doubt, I wholeheartedly recommend both. Each has a high ceiling of potential energy which can be tapped to lead to dramatic improvements in your productivity & reduced busy-ness.

E-Myth: Revisited

The Fifth Discipline

Stephen R. Covey

He passed away over 6 years ago, gone & not forgotten as a pioneer; through his off the charts levels of contribution, we have much to tap into. The 4 quadrants is something to study often, & implement in short order.

Covey’s Time Management Matrix, in the written word

Or perhaps you’d learn better from a visual?

Suggested ‘Twitterverse’ Follows

A Helpful Guide to Becoming Unbusy by Joshua Becker

How to Stop Being Busy All the Time from Gus Razzetti

4 Ways to Break Free From Being “Too Busy” penned by Rikki Rogers , culled from The Muse

Leverage = Legacy

This concept is transformational. Pulling from the vastness of the internet, here are two marvelous resources. Once you take this small two-step seriously, my advice is to keep going!

Kelly Azevedo

Amanda Abella

Systems Thinking?

Its powerful. In a previous post, you learned all about the power of principled self education.

Here’s a superb opportunity to practice what you read by visiting Donella Meadows ‘s website.

And if you haven’t yet bumped into this infographic, please, I implore you, dive in over the next 24 hours. Your income can become systems driven wealth through active application of this business truism.

In my ongoing discovery, I’ve repeatedly shared these maxims with those whom I mentor, in coffee 1:1’s, & elsewhere: Why? They’ve allowed me to run multiple business ventures at the same time, all while making strides towards being productive = gold = time & (more) passive = silver = money.

Next steps:

What can Westminster Abbey teach about implementing this content?!

This inscription, when understood at a deeper level, reflects the ongoing value of lifelong learning.

Action Time

As with anything you choose to read, listen to, or watch, the truest formula = what you do next, how you proceed, & why?

Reflect, through meditation, prayer, yoga, or in a moment(s) of silence on this post, please, & thank you for reading!

In short …

A producer is productive; a consumer is busy. ‘Busy’ shouldn’t be a status, symbol, or state of being for the wise entrepreneur
Time = gold. Money = silver. Prioritize your irreplaceable asset; focus on it and not on money (income, wealth) as #1.
Review the links to invest in 2 highly recommended books
Covey’s quadrants/matrix is a terrific tool in and by itself
Suggested Twitter follows & some of their scholarly tweets. #MustReads
Understand systems & leverage in your entrepreneurship education
Leadership starts with self

SJ Barakony

SJ Barakony is a serial entrepreneur, futurist, & connector.

He lives in Ohio & is the Founder of Service Before Self Leadership: An Educational Solutions Provider.

He offers four highly customizable solutions to encourage families, individuals, faith institutions, & business owners to create & cultivate lifelong learning cultures in our homes & workplaces.

He serves as the TDD for Cleveland & Columbus (Ohio) for the H7 Network.

He also recently became an educational advisor for Tessr.io, a startup in the exciting world of blockchain/cryptocurrencies that will be establishing a cutting edge educational foundation.