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5 Holiday-themed Content Ideas for Busy Entrepreneurs by @GroupXMich

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5 Holiday-themed Content Ideas for Busy Entrepreneurs

by Michelle Fav | Featured Contributor

For entrepreneurs, the holidays can be utter chaos. From fitting in extra holiday parties, family time and managing that end-of-year surge in sales and site visits, it can feel like there’s no way to avoid dropping at least one ball with so many in the air. When things start to get busy, I oftentimes see businesses start to neglect their content programs — I know I’ve been a culprit of this. Yet, having a steady stream of fresh content ideas and posts is mission critical in order for your business to rank on search engines.

Sometimes the hardest part about creating new content for your site is brainstorming the new topics, so I’ve gone ahead and done some of the dirty work for you. Here are five holiday-themed content ideas you can personalize and write about pretty quickly on your site.

  1. A gift guide catering to your target audience.

Gift guides are popping up all over the place, because they’re timely posts that allows you to promote products from partners and/or affiliate programs, and also showcase new products in your industry. Many consumers are online looking for holiday gifts right now, and this is a great way to authentically reach that population. For example, I posted this Black Friday sales roundup right before Thanksgiving this year.

  1. A round-up of your top-performing or favorite posts from 2016.

This is one of the easiest posts to do, and it’s a great link building strategy for SEO. Check out your analytics tools to identify your top-performing blog posts, then do a brief paragraph write-up on each post with a link back to each one. I love that this helps get extra legs out of your existing content.

  1. A predictions piece for 2017.

Are there any trends you’re looking forward to in 2017? It’s fun to think ahead and make some predictions about what will happen in the coming year in your industry. For example, in the fitness industry, will high-intensity intervals continue to dominate headlines, or will something else take its place in the spotlight?

  1. A customer spotlight.

The holidays are a great time for giving back, and one way to do that is show your customers your appreciation for them on your blog or content hub. Pull a screen grab of some of your favorite customer tweets and Facebook comments on your social profiles, showcasing the cool things your customers are doing with your products.

  1. Any extra FAQs for the holiday season.

Are you extending your returns policy? Have you been out of stock of one item that’s coming back in stock soon? Are you discounting your services now through Dec. 24? A blog post is a nice way to let your audience know what’s going on, and keep them in the loop as you get updates.

Quickie posts are totally acceptable when you need to get content out fast in the middle of your busy season. Once things start to slow, you’ll want to balance it out with some longer form content to please search engines. These content ideas will help to give your content program some much-needed TLC in the middle of the busiest time of year.

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Michelle Fav GroupXFitnessTips.comMichelle Fav, PR expert, group fitness instructor and blogger behind GroupXFitnessTips.com.

I have a wide range of interests, but what’s been keeping me up at night lately? My search to find the perfect song to pair with a group exercise routine. I feel on fire when the beat drops in my fitness class and the entire room is moving deafeningly in sync with the music.

My blog GroupXFitnessTips.com brings together fitness instructors from all walks of life to inspire, encourage and learn from each other. When I’m not at the gym, you can find me crafting corporate stories at my day job in public relations (PR).

Coupling my passion for fitness with my professional obsession with communications, I have an array of expertise to share with you, such as branding strategies, blogging 101 tips and healthy living advice for busy entrepreneurs.

Follow me on Twitter (@GroupXMich) and Facebook (GroupXMich).

4 Secrets to a Million Dollar Author Website by Monika Beck @SuccessHarbor

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4 Secrets to a Million Dollar Author Website

by Monika Beck | Featured Contributor

Are you an author who wants more readers?

Your website could be your best asset to get more people to read your books. Unfortunately, most author websites are epic failures.

If you are waiting for a publisher to sell your books, you are in for a huge disappointment.

No publisher can do as much for your writing career as your website.”

If you want to take your writing career to the next level your author website must have the following:

ABOUT

Your website must have a solid “Author” page. You must tell an amazing story about you and your writing. Your “Author” page must communicate what makes you and your writing different. This is your chance to differentiate yourself from other authors.

Make “commenting” available on this page. It is important to give your readers an opportunity to interact with you and each other.

BLOG

You are a writer, so blogging should be easy for you. In addition to your books, it is important to publish new blog posts frequently on your website.

If you want to build a real following, people will want more than your books. Share your thoughts on topics relevant to your writings.

Share what is important to you. Post at least once a week. Make sharing easy on your blog, to build virality.

EMAIL

You must aggressively build your email subscriber list. Email is one of the cheapest and most effective marketing tools. Take advantage of it.

Give people a great incentive to subscribe to your email list. Give them something others can’t get. For example, you could write an article each month that is only made available to those who are on your email list. Share exclusive content only with your email subscribers.

PROMOTION

I saved the most important for last. Promotion is the key requirement for a million dollar author website. Your attitude toward promotion is what will determine if your website will be a huge success or not.

There are many ways to promote your author website:

  • You should promote your website long before you have completed your book. You could start promoting your website a year or two before your book is finished.
  • Reach out to bloggers and podcasters and ask to be interviewed. There are tens of thousands of bloggers and podcasters who are constantly looking for new content to publish.
  • Network with influencers. (My favorite networking tool is Twitter.) As an author, you must know your audience. Who are the influencers of your readers? Make a list of 100 websites and blogs. Reach out to the people behind those websites.
  • Connect with authors. Make a real connection with authors. Share each other’s work. Don’t be afraid of the competition.
  • Become a guest blogger on related blogs. Take every opportunity to write for relevant websites.
  • Create videos or your own audio podcast. This is a great way to get in front of a new group of people.
  • Become active on related online forums and facebook groups.

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Savvy web designer with a twist – Monika Beck with Webene – San Diego, CA.

Monika-Beck-AuthorMonika Beck is passionate about website design, web programming, ecommerce, and building businesses. She is a serial entrepreneur and the cofounder of Success Harbor a website dedicated to help entrepreneurs succeed. Success Harbor interviews successful entrepreneurs and publishes topics relevant to business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Monika started Success Harbor with her cofounder in order to ease the life of entrepreneurs through original research, tips and unique content. Monika is also cofounder of Webene, a website design and online marketing firm based in San Diego, CA. Webene specializes in mobile-friendly responsive websites built on the WordPress platform. Monika loves playing classical music on the piano.

5 Essential Tools for Bloggers & Business Owners by @hobbesandco

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graphics_sheownsit2by Clare Drake | Featured Contributor

As business owners we’ve become accustomed to creating valuable content in the form of blog posts to increase our SEO as well as attracting our target market.  Content marketing is a big aspect of my own growth strategy in my business and creating the right type of  blog posts is key to showcasing my expertise. Here are the tools I use on a regular basis to streamline my process – and hope they will help you be more productive too. I have listed them out in the order I use them. 

  1. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

CoSchedule is a content marketing scheduler that has a free headline analyzer tool that analyzes your blog post title. It grades your headline and suggests how you can improve it with the right mix of common, uncommon, emotional and power words. A tool I use to improve the shareability of my content (which is what we all want,  right?).

coschedule headline analyzer

CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

 

2. Pixabay

Pixabay is a stock photo database where you can use their high resolution images for any project you’re working on without attribution. They are totally free and you can use them for commercial projects too. I have a few free stock photo databases bookmarked but almost exclusively use Pixabay for it’s clean user interface and high quality photos, vector graphics and illustrations.

Pixabay - Free Stock Images

Pixabay – Free Stock Images

 

3. Canva / Adobe’s  Creative Cloud 

Canva is a graphic design browser application that lets you create graphics and documents easily through the use of a drag and drop editor. Perfect for business owners and bloggers who aren’t designers. There are great templates that you can get started with – and it’s totally free. There is also a paid version for extra (and amazing) features. Whilst Canva is on this list I tend to use Adobe’s Creative Suite myself as I’m a designer and use Illustrator and InDesign for my blog graphics creation. I also use InDesign to create workbooks, checklists and other printables that I add as content upgrades (an extra freebie in exchange for an email address) for my blog posts.

Canva

Canva

 

4. Buffer

Buffer is a social media scheduling tool that I use daily. It allows you to install a plugin on your browser so you can share content easily. I spend every evening scheduling content for my Twitter feed for the following day, and I aim to share 70% of other people’s content to 30% of my own. This build relationships with influencers in my niche – and shows my audience I know them and what they’re interested in, which builds trust.

Buffer

Buffer

 

5. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is THE most important tool I use in my business. It not only shows you your pageviews but also gives you immense insight into who your audience is, where they live, how they got to your site, and which pages or posts are most popular. I use it to track where my audience comes from (currently 80% from Pinterest) and what posts resonate with them the most. This allows me to create more content like that in the future. Data analysis is so important in growing your business and blog – to see what you’re doing right and what you can improve on. Plus it’s totally free.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics

 

I’d love to know which tools are you excited about trying out? Let me know below.

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Clare DrakeClare Drake is a brand stylist and website designer for creative entrepreneurs all over the world through her work at Hobbes and Co.

Clare’s passion is to create and develop iconic brands for freelancers, entrepreneurs, small business owners and bloggers that delight their audience. Join the Creative Collective community to get free access to the resource library here.

Clare lives in a small coastal town in the UK with her husband Tom and yellow labrador Hobbes.  When she’s not working she loves to cook, host dinner parties for her friends and family, and drink coffee or wine (depending on what time it is!)

Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook

The Goal Setting Rule That Started My Blog By @GroupXMich

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Goal setting: The 100-percent rule

by Michelle Fav | Featured Contributor

This time last year, I wanted so badly to start a blog. It would gnaw at me as I scanned Facebook before bed, during my lunch break at work and even when I was grabbing a bite with friends. I would write an article here and there, thinking it would help me with my goal setting. I never made any significant headway, until finally I decided to commit completely and just do it. Fast forward to today, I’m approaching the six month mark on my blog for fitness instructors, GroupXFitnessTips.com, and a lot of anxiety about my blog has gone away.

At first, it surprised me that I no longer give myself so much heartache over blogging. Then, I stumbled upon Susie Moore’s 100-percent rule (that she learned from Jack Canfield) and it felt like a lightbulb went off in my head.

The 100-percent Rule

According to Susie, “[I]t’s our well-meaning ‘99-percent effort’ that is exhausting. It consumes energy without producing results. It’s stressful. It makes us feel like a failure when we’re not—we just haven’t fully committed to something. Putting 99-percent effort into things that matter in life means we are constantly falling short of our potential—and feeling bad about it.”

With that mindset, 100-percent effort is easy. Once you’ve made a project or goal a priority, you no longer have to weigh your options. The decision is made for you — you work on that goal.

That’s exactly how I felt when I was trying to start my blog. I would waste so much time feeling guilty for not working on my blog and anguished that I wasn’t “good enough”. Once I committed to posting two articles a week no matter what, I removed a lot of anxieties about writing.

3 Tips to Apply The 100-percent Rule in Your Life

  1. Don’t wait for the perfect moment.

Oftentimes we talk about our goals as if they hinge on this perfect situation. For example, I’m not going to go to a fitness class or even step foot in the gym until I’ve lost 10 pounds. Mine was that I wasn’t going to start my blog until I had the perfect URL and a handful of posts ready.

And, some of that preparation is useful when goal setting. But, more often than not we use that as an excuse not to really start something, and then it gets stuck in 99-percent effort and a whole lot of frustration.

With fitness, blogging or other common goals, you just have to get started. None of these goals are the type you achieve overnight, so just getting started putting the effort will help you be well on your way.

  1. Go 100 percent on only one goal at a time.

Most entrepreneurs and side hustlers are constantly goal setting. But, the beauty of 100 percent, is you can only give one thing 100 percent of your effort.

So, choose wisely and stick with that one goal until you’ve crossed it off or it becomes a habit.

  1. Plan around your goal.

Carve out space in your calendar for your goal, and don’t let anything make you change that schedule. That’s 100-percent effort: sacrificing other responsibilities or obligations for your goal.

I know giving 100-percent effort sounds scary, but in actuality, it removed so much anxiety for me around goal setting for my blog. The starting point is usually the hardest part, so join me in committing to 100 percent and never looking back.

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Michelle Fav GroupXFitnessTips.comMichelle Fav, PR expert, group fitness instructor and blogger behind GroupXFitnessTips.com.

I have a wide range of interests, but what’s been keeping me up at night lately? My search to find the perfect song to pair with a group exercise routine. I feel on fire when the beat drops in my fitness class and the entire room is moving deafeningly in sync with the music.

My blog GroupXFitnessTips.com brings together fitness instructors from all walks of life to inspire, encourage and learn from each other. When I’m not at the gym, you can find me crafting corporate stories at my day job in public relations (PR).

Coupling my passion for fitness with my professional obsession with communications, I have an array of expertise to share with you, such as branding strategies, blogging 101 tips and healthy living advice for busy entrepreneurs.

Follow me on Twitter (@GroupXMich) and Facebook (GroupXMich).

5 Tools to Help You Nail Your Next Blog Post

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5 Tools to Help You Nail Your Next Blog Post

by Deanne Wong

Blogging can be a great way to grow your business online. Blogs drive traffic to your website, build brand authority and generate customer trust. Clearly blogs are important, but where should you start? Effective blogging is a process: research, write, optimize, design, publish and share. Lucking there are hundreds of tools out there to help you with the blogging process. This blog post outlines five online tools that you can use to nail your next blog post.

For blog topics and ideas: BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a tool that lets you analyze top performing content for any topic or competitor. The tool breaks down performance by social media shares. Simply type in a topic, keyword or competitor’s domain and find out exactly what content is resonating with the audience.

For an extra grammar check: Grammarly

Grammarly finds and corrects up to 10 times more mistakes than a word processor. When you are done with your first draft, paste it into Grammarly and it will instantly check for over 200 types of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation mistakes.

For improving readability: Readability Score

Great content is easy to read. Readability Score analyzes your text and generates a reading ease score and a reading grade level. You can use this tool to measure and improve the readability of your writing. In general, you will want to aim for a reading ease score of around 60-70 and reading grade level of around 8.

For title optimization: CoShedule Headline Analyzer

Titles matter. With a number of blog posts published each day, it’s difficult to get consumers to actually read your content. While there is no simple trick to perfecting a headline, the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer tool can give you some guidance. Simply type in your headline and CoSchedule will provide you with an in-depth analysis. The tool first gives you a score from 0 to 100 and later analyzes the words uses and character count.

For blog designs: Canva

Good content comes with good visuals. It has been proven that blog posts with graphics get more traffic, shares and engagement. Canva is an online tool that makes graphic design simple for everyone. Canva has countless free blog post templates, making it super easy to create something that stands out.

Do you have a favourite blogging tool to share? Share it below!

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Deanne WongDeanne is a Toronto-based digital marketer. She is also the co-founder of Hello City Girl, a lifestyle blog dedicated to inspiring readers to create, experience and explore.

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The Basics of Establishing a Web Presence by @DeborahSweeney

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The Basics of Establishing a Web Presence

by Deborah Sweeney | Featured Contributor

A 2014 study by Google found that a little over half of small businesses have a website, though it’s likely that number has gone up since the survey was done. Still, the fact that a little under half of small businesses don’t even have a website it appalling – without one you are losing customers every day. Over 50% of people surveyed said they look up a business online before making a purchase, and that same study found local searches are twice as likely to lead to a purchase. Creating a solid web presence, though, is more than just parking a site under ‘yourbusiness.com’ – you’re going to have to put in a bit more effort to see any real returns.

Domains and Websites

This is step one – buy your company’s related domain name and publish a site. The site doesn’t have to be fantastic, and there are plenty of services online that’ll help someone with little to no web experience publish a decent looking website. When designing it, though, remember that over 60% of all web traffic is now mobile, so at this stage use eye-catching graphics and write short, easy to read content. Your business’s name, address, phone number, and services offered should all be front and center. As a side-note, don’t ignore other top-level domain variants like ‘yourbusiness.net’ or ‘yourbusiness.biz.’ They aren’t as important as a .com, but it’s never a bad idea to buy as many reasonable tld variants as you can.

Social Media

Social marketing is more than Facebook, though having an active profile there is important. You’ll want to register your business on every major site – Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Instagram or Pinterest if you think you can market your product visually. Google+ needs to be on your list as well. Recently the site has been making moves to separate + from the more important ‘Local Listings,’ but that hasn’t happened yet. So grab a ‘Google My Business’ page while you can, and make sure your listing is up to date and looks nice. Then when Google inevitably separates their local/business section from Plus, you’ll be in a good spot to adapt to whatever changes Google implements.

Blogging/Cross-Blogging

Content marketing is how you turn your web presence from good to great. 70% of consumers now say they prefer to get to know a company through articles over ads, so producing good, well-written content is a must, especially if you’re based online or do business with people you do not personally see. The idea behind blogging is to foster trust in, and recognition of, your brand, so don’t just throw 800-word ads up every week and think that’ll do. Rather, you need to identify good topics about which you can write knowledgeably. When you’re first starting out, try focusing on common questions or sources of customer frustration. Then, as you get some experience, you can venture into advising on industry-specific issues. And, once you’re seen as something as a thought-leader, you can try cross-blogging with other companies and outlets. The more links into your site you have, the better your search engine ranking.

Creating a web presence requires much more than a website, though it’s a good place to start. The majority of your target market browse the internet, and a strong web presence makes it much more likely they’ll recognize, trust, and eventually patronize your company. Different business will have different needs, but at the very least make sure your business has a presence with its own site and on the major social networks. Then, as you grow, you can work on expanding that presence through content marketing. Before you know it your own small business will be popping up all over the internet!

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Deborah Sweeney – Legal Expert, CEO, MyCorporation.com – Calabasas, CA

Deborah Sweeney HeadshotAs CEO of MyCorporation Business Services, Inc. (MyCorporation.com), Deborah Sweeney is an advocate for protecting personal and business assets for business owners and entrepreneurs. With her experience in the fields of corporate and intellectual property law, Deborah has evolved from lawyer to business owner. She has extensive experience in the start-up and entrepreneurial industry as she has been involved in the formation of hundreds of thousands of businesses for MyCorporation.com’s customers.

Ms. Sweeney received her JD & MBA degrees from Pepperdine University. She is active in the community and loves working with students and aspiring entrepreneurs. She serves on the Board of Regents at California Lutheran University and is a founding member of Partners of Pepperdine. Deborah has served as an adjunct professor at the University of West Los Angeles and San Fernando School of Law in the areas of corporate and intellectual property law. Ms. Sweeney is also well-recognized for her written work online as a contributing writer with top business and entrepreneurial blogging sites.  She is a regular contributor on Forbes, American Express, Social Media Today, and BlogHer among many others.

In her ‘free’ time, Deborah enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, Benjamin (8) and Christopher (6). Deborah believes in the importance of family and credits the entrepreneurial business model for giving her the flexibility to enjoy both a career and motherhood. Follow her on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.

Beginning to Meditate by @LUCYrk78

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Beginning to Meditate

by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

How do you feel about meditation? I’ll start: for me, it was very hard to get into. Things are generally harder the more you think about them, as opposed to just jumping in and starting them, and that’s how it was for me with meditation. I thought, “I can’t sit quietly for that long,” “I am not sure I want to get that deep into my head,” and “I’m a little scared of it, honestly.” And while it’s easy to begin something once you decide to, sticking with it is another story. They say it takes 30 days of doing something for it to become more natural, almost a habit.

So how do you start? I have found that meditation is more than simply signing up at your local studio. That is one way, certainly, to keep accountability – if you are like me, you are more likely to do something day after day if you know you’ve spent money to attend a class, but what if you don’t have time to get a studio each day? Or what if there just isn’t one you’ve “clicked with” nearby?

Here are some of the steps that have worked for me, bringing me from a meditation skeptic, to someone that craves that time in each day.

  • Live For Today 
    • Don’t look 30 days out. Take it day by day. Just for today tell yourself, “I am going to meditate today.” Telling yourself “just for today” you are going to do something, relieves a bit of the pressure. I chose 9 pm, so on day 1 I told myself, “Today at 9 pm, I am going to meditate.” I set the alarm on my phone to go off at 8:55pm, because I felt that was a bit of accountability – when the alarm goes off, that was my reminder.
  • Start Small 
    • On your first day of meditation, you don’t have to sit there for 15 minutes. I told myself that I would set my alarm again on my phone for 9:05pm. Honestly, you can do almost anything you can think of for “just five minutes.” I knew that I would see how I felt after those five minutes, and adjust my time goal for Day 2. If those first five minutes felt more like 30, I would aim for 3 minutes the second night. If those five minutes flew by, I would aim for 7 minutes on day 2.
  • Find a Comfortable Spot 
    • Find somewhere you feel calm that you can sit quietly with no distractions. You might want to light a candle near you that has a scent you find pleasing. You mainly want to find somewhere that you feel safe and at peace, and where you can just be. This place will be somewhere you go every day for your meditation time, so you want it to be a stable environment.
  • Don’t Make It A Chore 
    • While I did put an alarm on my phone to set myself up for Day 1, I didn’t add “meditate” to my calendar or to-do list. I wanted to do this to get more in touch with myself and my feelings, and to begin to center myself with an increasing work-load and a bit of stress I had been feeling. We would advise not to start meditating because you’re reading more about it in blogs that come out each day, or because “everyone else is doing it,” or because “it’s in lately.” We think those reasons won’t keep you interested in meditation for very long, and you most likely won’t get as much out of it as you probably can. Maybe it’s not the right time for you to start a meditation practice – that’s fine. It isn’t going anywhere.
  • Breathe 
    •  The easiest way that I found to begin, was to breathe in and out and focus on my breathing. I found that to be centering and a way to begin to quiet my mind. If I was focused, I wasn’t thinking about feeling uncomfortable with the idea of meditation, or worrying if I was somehow doing it wrong. There are many apps you can also use to help guide you through breathing if you find that easier. After a few days of meditating daily, I found that occasionally strong emotions would come up while I was sitting – going back to focusing on my breathing helped get through those feelings at times I wasn’t feeling ready to deal with the issues.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       After my first 30 days of meditating, I learned I COULD sit quietly, and I even began looking forward to the time in my day that I knew I was going to be sitting by myself with my thoughts, and not having to worry about what was next, or what work was like that day. It was my time to be with me, and enjoy my own company. I also found that during my day, I was able to let things that prior to starting to meditate would bother me much more deeply than they began to. I found times during throughout the day that I would be calming myself and becoming more centered without even thinking about it.

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Lucy Rendler-KaplanLucy Rendler-Kaplan is a marketing veteran, with close to 17 years experience in field marketing management public relations and social media marketing. Both in-house and as a consultant, Lucy has created, developed and managed marketing projects for organizations including: Red Bull North America, ONE Coconut Water, Camel and Ethos Water, to name a few.

Most recently, Lucy has left corporate America to work as a consultant, focusing on small businesses and start-ups to design effective social media and marketing strategies to jumpstart brand growth. In addition to strategic business development efforts, she directs media relations, branding, advertising and website development.

As a social media consultant, Lucy works with companies in auditing their current social media efforts and creating a comprehensive social media strategy that aligns company-wide objectives through social business practices.

With an early background in journalism, Lucy regularly contributes to a number of NFL and music blogs, as well as her own, with a diverse focus encompassing Lucy’s passion not only for networking and marketing but also for fitness. She spends her free time honing her photography skills, running and watching an excessive amount of true crime shows.

Let’s connect! Twitter & Linkedin

10 Tips for Silencing Your Inner Critic by @LUCYrk78

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10 Tips for Silencing Your Inner Critic

by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

We all have it. That little inner voice that creeps up in the most inopportune times. The one that tells us not to ask for the promotion, that we aren’t good enough, that we shouldn’t accept that date….the list can go on and on. Sometimes it speaks to us loudly and sometimes it is simply a quiet nag throughout our day. It can last for a minute, an hour or a week. Maybe even longer. At times, we didn’t even want to get out of bed, what’s the point?

Then, one day we learned we can talk back. We learned weccan tell that voice that we ARE good enough to go after what we want.

Here are a few tips that I hope will help:

  1. Start a journal: write down what you were doing each time you began to hear that voice and look for patterns. Learn to recognize that critic for what it is. Next to that list, write down something you did that day that you felt proud once you accomplished it. Look through those proud moments when your inner critic begins to creep in.
  2. Look in the mirror: look at your reflection and tell yourself ONE good thing about what you see. If you can, keep going! Don’t stop at one. If you can only muster one positive attribute, be happy you recognized the good.
  3. Place a post-it on your mirror: It can be anything positive, the one on mine says “I am Grateful.” Make sure it’s a mirror you will look into each day, perhaps while you’re brushing your teeth.
  4. Add a positive to a photo: find a photo of yourself looking happy, a photo you have always liked an use an app that can place a positive self-affirmation or quote over the photo.
  5. Make a list of your closest friends: for each person, write a couple of sentences about each person on why you are friends, why you like them so much. It is said that we are a product of our five closest friends, so the positive attributes you see in them are most likely also seen in YOU.
  6. Think about 10 years from now: when something seems hard or I’m feeling down about something small I may have done wrong, I like to remind myself, “Will this REALLY matter 10 years from now?” Remember a test you failed miserably in high school, and thought it would ruin your life, having done so poorly on it? No? Of course you don’t.
  7. Reframe negative thoughts: put a positive ending on each one. You made a mistake yes, but what did you learn from it?
  8. Phone a friend: the best way to stop obsessing over your own shortcomings is to get outside yourself. Call a friend and inquire about their day, get THEM talking and truly listen.
  9. Cut yourself some slack: are you trying to do much? Are you rushing through things because the to-do list seems overwhelming? Move some of the day’s tasks to three days from now. The earth won’t stop turning.
  10. Put it in perspective: ok, you made a mistake. While your screw up may feel like the end of the world to you, think of how many people truly don’t care? How many don’t even know about it and never will? We are just a small part of a much larger world – teach that inner critic some perspective.

You CAN break this cycle. And you CAN start right now. Let me know in the comments some of the tips that have helped YOU when the inner critic gets too loud.

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Lucy Rendler-KaplanLucy Rendler-Kaplan is a marketing veteran, with close to 17 years experience in field marketing management public relations and social media marketing. Both in-house and as a consultant, Lucy has created, developed and managed marketing projects for organizations including: Red Bull North America, ONE Coconut Water, Camel and Ethos Water, to name a few.

Most recently, Lucy has left corporate America to work as a consultant, focusing on small businesses and start-ups to design effective social media and marketing strategies to jumpstart brand growth. In addition to strategic business development efforts, she directs media relations, branding, advertising and website development.

As a social media consultant, Lucy works with companies in auditing their current social media efforts and creating a comprehensive social media strategy that aligns company-wide objectives through social business practices.

With an early background in journalism, Lucy regularly contributes to a number of NFL and music blogs, as well as her own, with a diverse focus encompassing Lucy’s passion not only for networking and marketing but also for fitness. She spends her free time honing her photography skills, running and watching an excessive amount of true crime shows.

Let’s connect! Twitter & Linkedin

Take These Three Steps to Grow Your Brand Right Now by @deborahsweeney

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Take These Three Steps to Grow Your Brand Right Now

by Deborah Sweeney | Featured Contributor

Whether you and your business are new to the game, or you’ve been in business for a while and feel as though you’ve hit a lull, every business can stand to learn a new trick or two. If you’ve been wanting to take your business to the next level, but you’re at a loss for what comes next, try implementing these three easy tips for growing your business right now!

Amp up your cross-blogging. 

Whether your company has a blog or not, writing guest posts for other blogs in your industry can be very beneficial to your business. You get to completely double your exposure by showcasing an article you wrote (that ideally links back to your website somewhere) to a new group of potential customers who haven’t previously heard about you, and might not have heard about you were you not being featured on a new outlet.

If you do have a blog, try and create cross-blogging relationships with other blogs in your industry. Most cross-blogging typically occurs once a month for each outlet, but if you find an outlet that really grooves with your company and vice versa, feel free to establish a more frequent cross-blogging rate. Conversely, if writing a lot of blogs isn’t something your team has the time to do, you can also arrange something that occurs once every couple months. Establishing a cross-blogging relationship with a company in your (or in a similar) industry can often times lead to a partnership down the road that goes beyond simply swapping blogs. 

Stay on top of your marketing.  

A large part of marketing these days is simply being a master of all things social media. The only way to know your way around social sites is to actively partake in them on a daily basis. Never leave your audience hanging during the work week- you should at least be posting once a day to let your followers know you are a serious business with a serious online presence. As social sites continue to change in a non-stop way, the best way to adapt is to keep up and be an active user every day. If you take a break from your social sites, not only will your customers be wondering where you went, but something major could change that you may not be accustomed to upon your return, setting your business behind its competitors.

Update your company culture.  

Typically, behind every strong brand is a strong team of employees. The most successful businesses have a group of employees who not only get along, but who work together for the betterment of the company. Achieve this ideal company culture by paying special attention to who you hire. On top of skill sets, really think about how these potential employees will mesh with the rest of your team.

Don’t be afraid to liven things up by keeping the office a fun, warm place to be. Celebrate birthdays, watch major sports games together in the break room, take office field trips to the nearest frozen yogurt establishment on the hotter days this summer- don’t be afraid to get creative!

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Deborah Sweeney – Legal Expert, CEO, MyCorporation.com

Deborah Sweeney HeadshotAs CEO of MyCorporation Business Services, Inc. (MyCorporation.com), Deborah Sweeney is an advocate for protecting personal and business assets for business owners and entrepreneurs. With her experience in the fields of corporate and intellectual property law, Deborah has evolved from lawyer to business owner. She has extensive experience in the start-up and entrepreneurial industry as she has been involved in the formation of hundreds of thousands of businesses for MyCorporation.com’s customers.

Ms. Sweeney received her JD & MBA degrees from Pepperdine University. She is active in the community and loves working with students and aspiring entrepreneurs. She serves on the Board of Regents at California Lutheran University and is a founding member of Partners of Pepperdine. Deborah has served as an adjunct professor at the University of West Los Angeles and San Fernando School of Law in the areas of corporate and intellectual property law. Ms. Sweeney is also well-recognized for her written work online as a contributing writer with top business and entrepreneurial blogging sites.  She is a regular contributor on Forbes, American Express, Social Media Today, and BlogHer among many others.

In her ‘free’ time, Deborah enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, Benjamin (8) and Christopher (6). Deborah believes in the importance of family and credits the entrepreneurial business model for giving her the flexibility to enjoy both a career and motherhood. Follow her on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.

5 Blogging Obstacles to Overcome in Your Business by @AlmostPractical

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5 Blogging Obstacles To Overcome In Your Business

by Neena Nandagopal | Featured Contributor

One of the easiest (and cheapest) ways for business owners to reach their audience is through blogging.

Yet I am continuously surprised at how many entrepreneurs shy away from starting a blog.

And my response is this:

“I know that you don’t think of yourself as a writer. After all you do have a business to run.
And, obviously, you are very busy – which is a good thing.

But as a business owner, marketing is part of your job description.

And blogging is a very effective form of marketing.

So, what can we do to make it easy for you to start blogging regularly?”

While my clients come from many industries – their answers are quite similar.

These are the 5 biggest obstacles that keep entrepreneurs from using a blog to market their business.

Luckily, they are all easy to overcome.

Obstacle #1: I Don’t Know How To Update My Site

The technical side of blogging may seem scary. But most blogging platforms are now very user friendly.

Sure, you can get someone to set up your site – but you need to understand how to use it.

The most important reason is because it is expensive for you NOT to know.

To look “fresh” you should add new content to your site regularly.

Knowing how to update your site empowers you to either do it yourself or hire the right people to do it for you.

Obstacle #2: I Don’t Know How To Work With Images

In blogging, images are important.

You use images to illustrate your posts. So, there are some image basics that you should understand.

First and most important, familiarize yourself with the legal issues about using photos that you did not take.

Either use your own photos or find permissible photos that you can use.

Second, learn the basics of resizing, cropping, and adding a few words to a photo. These can add visual interest and really make your pictures pop.

Services like Picmonkey and Canva make it very easy to work with your photos even if you are not a pro.

Obstacle #3: I Am Not A Writer

This is actually a good thing.

Writing for the web goes against the grain of what we learned in high school English.

When you blog, you should write like you talk.

A light conversational style is a lot easier to read online than huge paragraphs with big words.

Learn to write headlines that grab attention and keep your writing simple.

Obstacle #4: I Don’t Know Anything About Search Engine Optimization

Using good search engine optimization (SEO) is how you let the search engines know what your site is all about.

When you write a blog post, you are writing for two audiences: real people and search engines.

Writing for real people is easy – you say what you need to say to get your point across.

But when it comes to search engines people seem to think that there is a magic formula that they need to use to rank well.

Recently, the search engines have come down hard on websites that try to “game” them. Meaning that if a website uses an underhanded technique to get to the top of the search results – they will actually be penalized and either get dropped altogether or get pushed way down.

You don’t need to be a search engine expert to be a blogger.

Just remember to use your keywords in your article just enough so that the search engine robots can figure out what your article is about and rank it accordingly.

Don’t overdo it – but don’t forget them either.

Obstacle #5: I Don’t Have Time To Blog

Blogging for your business may seem like a huge time commitment.

But you can set your own blogging goals to fit your available time – it is entirely within your control.

If your goal is to make your site look current and active – you can commit to write one blog post per month.

That is only 12 articles per year.

If your goal is to generate huge amounts of website traffic – then you will need to commit to blog more often.

Pick your schedule, create an editorial calendar, and stick to to it.

Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back

The more you blog, the easier it gets. Don’t wait for perfect – just get started and learn as you go.

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Neena Nandagopal of AlmostPractical.comNeena Nandagopal is Almost Practical Small Business Coaching and Consulting. She lives and breathes her business – so they are one and the same.

She is passionate about giving creative and talented women concrete guidance on how to establish an online business that is in line with their lives.

Her services include everything from blog coaching packages to creating individualized policy and procedure manuals and business processes.

Neena believes that working more efficiently is the key to business success. However, her philosophy is that time management is outdated. Instead, she works with her clients to manage their focus and attention, because that is what brings maximum results – both online and offline.

When she is not working, Neena enjoys spending time with her husband, four teenage children, and her little shih-tzu.

Neena’s Website: AlmostPractical.com
Neena on Social: Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube