Successful Blog

What We Can Learn From Character Blogs

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By Jael Strong

A colleague and I were recently discussing character blogs, a type of blog in which a writer blogs as if he or she is a character off of a television program, movie, etc.  The idea is enticing; it takes anonymity to a new level.  Who doesn’t want the freedom to write behind such a disguise? Unfortunately, this blend of acting and writing doesn’t appear to be open to just anybody.  A writer needs to be hired for such ghost writing.

 

Still, isn’t there something here to help out the rest of us bloggers?  I think so.  First, what makes this type of blogging inviting?  As I noted above, the freedom of anonymity is appealing.  Blogging offers that to everybody though.  We write in amongst a sea of other writers.  Very few of our readers know us personally, so there is room for a little bit of self-invention in this forum.  I’m not condoning deception of your audience.  I’m saying that if anonymity is what you crave, take this opportunity provided in your blog. 

 

In practical terms, how would this reinvention work?  For example, if you are withdrawn by nature, your blog can be a place to create a persona that is outgoing.  If you are known in the real world as insensitive, even crass, you could use your blog to develop a more sympathetic, kind self.  If “reinvention” doesn’t sit well with you, we could call it developing a more improved you.  In any case, this is a type of ghost writing in which you are the writer for whom you are the ghost writer.

 

Is there anything else appealing about this process?  From my point of view, this type of blogging allows for more creativity, especially if you are writing from an entirely new standpoint.  Writing as if you are someone else is not only fun, but allows you to tackle topics from a brand new angle.  The challenges would be different from those of a typical blog, since consistency of character and background would be an issue.  But for someone who loves writing creatively, this obstacle would be enjoyable to overcome.

 

Simply inventing a new character and writing from that angle sounds wonderful to me.  Tweaking my personality traits via a blog also has its draw.  Both come with new challenges and even new responsibilities, but those writers who do it seem to be having a great time with those difficulties.  What do you think about this type of blogging?


Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas .

Thanks, Jael

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Negotiations: 3 Steps to a “YES” and a Great Relationship

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A Guest Post by
Zelko Kecman

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We’ve all heard this when buying a car – “let me check with the manager and see what I can do for you”. The interesting thing for me is this also happens a lot in business and almost the same type of conversations. Someone almost always has to go away and ask for approval either on price or a clause in a contract.

Here are some simple principles that have worked for me over the years that will get you to a mutual Yes and more importantly won’t harm your relationship for future business. Lastly this is a very high level view as what I’ve outlined is generic for both business or personal. There are some additional considerations when dealing with very large organizations and large values.

I see negotiations in 3 phases, Preparation, Discussions and Done Deal. The more time you spend on step 1, the less time you’ll spend in 2 and you will be more likely to get to a good deal.

1) Preparation (aka Do your homework)

– #1 item is listing specifically what is most important to you. What is absolutely not negotiable and what is and how far. WRITE it down and be specific with the details.
– Leverage your network of friends and colleagues (that’s what Facebook and LinkedIn are for)
– Google, Bing, your own internal databases: look for other similar cases, going prices, reviews, what are you worth, how the company is doing, etc
– What role does the person you are going to be talk with have? Think of this, someone in procurement is measured by how much they get from the other side financially in most cases. Also is it month/qtr/year end?

2) Discussions

First of all, before you even get into the hard discussions and start throwing contracts or wants around, try to understand who you are dealing with. If you meet someone who is good at what they do, it almost always starts with seemingly harmless questions and discussion. The reason for this is to get a better sense on who that person is or what is important to them. Also, have faith the other person is being honest, but do not trust. I know this sounds harsh, but being naive will not serve you well.

Here’s a simple checklist during the discussions:
– Keep a cool head all the time, be friendly and keep emotion out of it.
– Be open to heated debate. Just don’t make it personal, keep it factual.
– For each item being discussed, clarify your intent. I can’t stress this one enough. Especially in legal terms, legal is not as black and white as people believe.
– Take notes on actions and decisions and owners of each
– Don’t commit to something unless you are 100% sure. Take it away to verify. Again, with the car, “so if I were to drop $xxx off you would buy the car?” – you’re response should be “let’s take a look at the whole deal and decide then”
– At the end review all the actions and decisions

At this point, you’re either getting closure on the deal or steps 1 and 2 will need to be done a few more times as people take away action items or revisions. Remember this is negotiations and you should be able to give on items (look at your list you wrote down in #1 and push on others you want. Also, it is very important to know that if you truly have 1 item left that there is no mutually agreeable way forward you should be able to step away from the situation and wish the other person well. If you can not you better be ready to give on that item then.

3) Done Deal

Great job, both you and the other person have come to an agreement. Neither side should walk away from the situation feeling like they got taken advantage of, if it does happen, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll never to business again. Close the conversation like it started with a friendly conversation and a follow up once you’ve completed the transaction. You never know when you will be back at the table and having a supporter of you will be important.

Lastly, getting to a point where you are comfortable with negotiations is not something you get from a course or book alone. It really is something that you need to do regularly. It can be with simple negotiations with your kids, spouse, stores, banks, anyone, you just have to be conscious that you are practicing your skills or in participating with others who are seasoned at it.

There are hundreds of resources out there for learning negotiations, however one of the best that I have seen as a starting point is “Getting To Yes” .

I love debate, discussion and comments so please feel free to let me know what you think.

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This blog post began as a Twitter conversation with Zelko Kecman – @zelkoCA – You can find out more about him through his linked in profile.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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SpyFu: The Secret Weapon of the Savvy Internet Marketer

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A Guest Post by Lior Levin

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Like most people new to Internet marketing, when I first started out, I made the mistake of believing that the Google keyword tool was the only accurate source of information and whatever Google’s tools said had to be treated as gospel. Boy, was I wrong! Not only are there plenty of other tools out there, they are actually a lot more accurate with their numbers because they are impartial.

Google’s goal is to make money, which they do from advertisers, so they care little about Internet marketers trying to make a living and their tools tend to reflect this bias. However, I’m here to tell you about a secret weapon no Internet marketer worth his salt should be without and that is SpyFu.com.

Competitive Data and Keyword Research

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SpyFu is a comprehensive, online keyword research tool that also offers SEO and PPC tools to allow you to spy on your competition. This online tool will allow to uncover vast amounts of data on your competition, including their daily PPC budget, their keywords, bid prices, how many clicks they get per day and much more. All you have to do is enter the domain name of the site you want to analyze and you are then presented with a plethora of information.

SpyFu allows you to also view the top organic rankings, the best performing ads and the SEO rankings for any of your competitors. It also features a list of the Top 100 Adsense keywords in terms of CPC.

You can also work backwards, by analyzing a specific keyword. You will be offered such information as the number of advertisers bidding on that particular keyword, the price range being paid per click and even the ads and links to the landing pages of the advertisers in question.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

One of the things I like most about SpyFu is that the information they provide is straightforward, with no secret formulas. You can see the complete history of a keyword, from how often a certain domain used a keyword in their campaign, to the highest and lowest CPC. It also allows provides information on when the ad copy was changed, which I find extremely useful. If I’m targeting a similar keyword, then I can always analyze the ad copy to see which approach delivered the best results.

The competitive data SpyFu provides is invaluable and I use it for almost every project I work on. After all, to beat the competition you have to know the competition and you would be surprised how much facts and figures can reveal about a competitors marketing strategy. I also save a lot of time by analyzing my competitor’s landing pages and ad copy. For example, if a certain ad has been in use for a while and hasn’t been changed, you can be sure that it is performing well. You can then use the ad copy in question as inspiration when crafting your own PPC ads.

However, SpyFu does have its limitations and I have found it to be somewhat inaccurate when it comes to the daily PPC budget of a competitor. While this information might not be important to you if you don’t do PPC, it is critical to any PPC-based campaign. After all, the budget you set plays a critical role in the ranking of your ad.

Despite its few limitations, I still find SpyFu to be one of the most effective market research tools available online. It certainly delivers much more realistic figures in terms of CPC, search volume and number of advertisers, offering a more accurate overview of a certain market or niche.

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This outstanding review was written by Lior Levin who is a consultant to 123 neon signs, and also works with an online task management startup.
You can find Lior on Twitter as Liors

Thank you, Lior. You’re welcome back here anytime.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Do You Blog Just Enough To Hate It?

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By Terez Howard

Someone once said, “Do you do it just enough to hate it?”

I recently thought about that question in reference to cooking. I try to cook healthy meals for my family. But if I cook too often or cook too many courses that take too much time, I don’t want to cook at all. I hate it. If I never cook (like when my kitchen was remodeled for a month), then I get used to not cooking and hate the idea of restarting.

Then there’s blogging. Do you blog just enough to hate it? Are you writing so much, so frequently that you dread the next time you have to concoct some witty, informative post? Or, do you write so rarely that you cannot produce anything worth reading?

Strike a balance

When you blog, you first have to have a clear objective in mind. What is your purpose?

Reasons for blogging include:

  • Showing yourself to be an authority in your niche, thus directing potential customers to your business
  • Helping people by explaining what you have learned in your niche
  • Sharing personal experiences for the fun of it
  • All of the above

Next, you have to take an honest look at your schedule.How much time per day or per week can you realistically devote to blogging?

You can devote:

  • One to two hours per week
  • One to two hours per day
  • One hour every other day
  • You get the idea!

Third, figure out how long it takes for you to create a high quality blog post. Some can whip up a post in a half hour, while it takes others a few hours to do the research, make links and write well.

Don’t forget about promotion

Too often, bloggers hear the saying, “Content is king.” And while beneficial content is a key ingredient to a great blog, promotion should be queen. It takes time to promote your blog.

Ways to promote your blog include:

  • Guest posting. Write for blogs related to your niche, so readers will naturally be drawn to read more at your own blog.
  • Blog commenting. Blogs you choose to comment on should be related to your niche, but even more importantly, should interest you. If you don’t care about the topic, then your comment will reflect your attitude.
  • Social media. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube are other avenues that can direct people back to your blog.
  • E-mail marketing and newsletters. Build a list of devoted followers to inform of the newest developments on your blog and with your business.
  • Free reports. Who doesn’t love freebies? Your audience will eat these up, especially when you tailor them to truly benefit your readers.
  • SEO and LSI. When you write your blog posts, good content is definitely on top. But you should consider SEO and LSI to direct search engine results to your pertinent posts.

All of this promotion takes time. So, you have to decide what you’re going to do and how long this is going to take you.

Planning makes perfect

If you plan what you’re going to do, how much time you will take and follow your plan, you will see results. It might take longer for some that do not have much time to devote than others. But it WILL pay off. You can blog just enough to love it.

How do blog just enough to love it?

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Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas. You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger.

Thanks, Terez!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!