Successful Blog

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Successful Blogger?

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Whether you think you can or not, you’re right.

These inspirational words from Henry Ford ring as true now as they did when the first Model T cars were being manufactured. An abundance of confidence will not make up for an overall lack of talent though.

If you’re wondering if you have what it takes to be a successful blogger, you may or may not be ready. You’ll never know if you don’t give it a try though, right? The only way to monitor if you have the gumption to get it done is to start up your blog and see what happens.

Can You Write Professionally?

Anyone can scribble some words on paper but it takes real panache to write something people will like to read. You must not use any netspeak like “ur” (you’re) on your blog if you want people to take you seriously. If you can’t come up with the quality copy you need, it might not be worth the bother of starting a blog.

Blog-goers can tell when a blog’s owner isn’t the person actually writing for it, so don’t think you can be sneaky and get someone else to do your writing for you.

Blogs like that are called Flogs because they are essentially fake. You shouldn’t be aspiring to a half-hearted effort anyhow, so don’t even try starting a blog if you can’t do the writing for it.

Do You Have Anything Meaningful to Say?

Here is where many young blogs foul up and go bad. You could put whatever you want on your blog, all day every day. If none of the content is any good, nobody is going to be recommending your blog to another person. Your copy needs to pull at people’s strings, get them feeling or thinking or maybe best of all, laughing.

There is one way to get around meaningful content and that’s if your blog will make people giggle. There’s a surprising amount of slack given to blogs that send their visitors away with a big, dumb smile.

This could be perfect if you’re already a sort of comedian. With a venue you control, nobody can make you stop until you’re ready to call it quits.

Can You Keep The Content Coming?

Writing a blog takes a lot of time and work. You will be looking all the time for something new to write about and that in itself is like another, small job.

If you aren’t giving your readers something new at least once a week, you can bet they’ll go somewhere they can get new stuff to read. A good way to deal with this is to have some posts ready before you start your blog.

This isn’t cheating or anything, you just do the writing beforehand and then you have a bank from which you can pull good, original content when you need it. It seems like common sense but then we all know how uncommon that really is.

It is a good idea to start tracking your rankings earlier to be able to tell which of your keywords perform better and identify your priorities earlier on. SE Ranking SERP tracker is a great app to do that easily and affordably:

Do yourself a favor and come up with a store of posts before you launch your blog. That is, if you’re still interested in blogging at all.

6 Tips for the Serial Side Hustler

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Freelance and gig work is an ever-rising trend in the modern business world. Now, many workers around the world depend on side hustles to supplement or create their income, with over 57 million Americans working some kind of freelance job.

Most of these freelancers are working several jobs at a time — called “serial side hustlers”.

If you already have multiple side hustles or are interested in branching out, consider helpful serial side hustle tips on how to successfully manage multiple gigs.

1. Set a Goal

Creating a goal means that you aren’t working aimlessly for the sake of working.

Set up an idea of what your end game is. This goal can be anything: the amount of money you earn, the experience you gain, or the how much content you produce.

2. Create Time Blocks

Organization is key for any job, but when you are managing yourself, staying organized and managing your time effectively is crucial.

Organize your gigs into chunks of time. Block off time slots for each activity so that you have a clear and simple plan going forward, and don’t get bogged down by having to remember when to do what.

3. Add Some Variety

Burnout is very common among freelancers, particularly when work gets repetitive and stressful.

One way to avoid this is by pursuing new gigs in different industries to keep your work diverse and interesting.

4. Keep Your Professional and Personal Life Separate

If you start discussing professional life on your personal social media accounts, borders get fuzzy. If you use your personal email or phone number for business communication, you are always available and never have time off.

Never give away your personal info, only use your business phone number for your public profiles.

Guard your personal life carefully.

If you can, avoid working with your family members too.

5 Take Time Off

Make sure you are aware of the time commitment that freelancer work demands, especially if you are pursuing multiple side hustles.

Another way to avoid burnout is to allot time to relax and de-stress. Build this time into your schedule to force yourself to take a break occasionally.

6. Use Simple Life Hacks

Multiple gigs are a big time commitment, so simplifying your life and optimizing your time in other areas is a good way to maintain a comfortable schedule and not over-exert yourself.

Make your life easier with simple hacks like meal planning at the beginning of the week or time blocking during the day to focus on one task at a time.

How to Make Your Blog Popular

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You have a blog, you have your first posts up, and you are just waiting for the traffic to start rolling in. You share the links on social media sites, get your friends to visit, put the link to your site in signatures… why isn’t your website being launched into internet fame? Where is the glory your genius so richly deserves? You are are your content is high quality, and that is what everyone says it takes to get noticed. Why isn’t your blog generating income? What gives?

Every time I am advising someone on a new blog, I give them one fact that none of the alleged “traffic gurus” will admit: popularity is going to take time. In fact, I tell bloggers not to expect enough traffic to monetize their blog for about a year. Yep, that is a full twelve months. Though you will be steadily growing in the meantime… hopefully.

Why does it take so long? Well, just having good content isn’t enough. You have to have a lot of content, have that content optimized, be working a good marketing strategy and plenty of patience while it all comes together. No one just becomes popular over night. It is going to take time and work.

Here are a few tips to help you to make your blog popular.

Keep At It

It might seem cliche, but you just have to stick with it. No matter how frustrated you get by the numbers, keep writing high quality posts, and do so often. I recommend three or more times per week, but five times a week is better.

That means you will be continuously publishing, and so up your chances of being seen.

MyBlogU

A quick way to get popular is by writing posts for blogs that already are. While it helps to already be friends with these websites, affiliations don’t grow on trees.

Try a platform like MyBlogU, which will allow you to post articles you have written that you would like to see published elsewhere. These can be published on up to ten different sites, with a byline linking back to your site. This is a very easy way to get noticed.

Don’t Forget The SEO

You should be optimizing all content to the very best of your ability. Too many bloggers mistake SEO for spam, which is not at all the same thing. After all, you aren’t injecting keywords into badly written content.

You are providing quality posts that use SEO the way it is meant to be used. You are just utilizing a beneficial tool. If you want guidance, and you have a WordPress blog, pick one of the free WordPress plugins.

Check Out What’s Trending

A good way to attract attention – on a short term basis – is by following trends. For example, an occasional post on a bit of news relevant to your niche can really go far. Try checking out Google Trends, or see what people are posting about on social media.

It won’t work for long, but it will at least get people to your site. The rest of your content will be what keeps them there.

Use Social Media

Your blog should have its own social media profiles…that is pretty much a necessity at this point. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, they are all useful. Update them regularly, and engage with your followers. Having a more personal touch, and showing your appreciation to readers one on one, will boost your popularity quite a bit.
Interlink Your Posts

Every post should have a footer that gives other relevant or interesting blog posts on your site. You should also link within the text of your post if possible. For example, don’t be afraid to reference something that has been published in the past. A link to another article can bring it back into the limelight.

What are some of your tips for making a blog into a hotspot? Let us know in the comments.

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay

Helpful Tips for Business Blogging

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Upon getting started in an online marketing campaign one of the first considerations is the targeted audience. What does the business provide a service or a product?

Therefore, we must find out what the keywords are that potential customers use when searching the internet for similar products or services. Four general categories provide some insight.

They are the following, city + service, zip code + service, local terminology + service and local landmarks + service. Naturally, replacing the service with the product gives us similar results.

It All Starts with the Best Keywords

Keyword searches are what drive a search engine to find the items queried by a user. Thus having knowledge of the most common associated with your product or service is pertinent when beginning an online marketing scheme.

Now there are other factors to consider in addition, however, using a technique called “search engine optimization” of SEO is what will enable a search engine to find and index your webpage in the top ten to twenty search results. If you are running a local business, you must understand what and how the competition is going about the same thing online as you are attempting.

Keywords should be used on all stages of your blogging strategy. From domain naming to content ideation, planning and writing.

Make A Successful SEO Campaign

Business blogging can be a success if a creative and focused SEO campaign is part of the design for a marketing strategy. One term to become familiar with is NAP or “name, address, and phone number,” it is essential that whenever this information is entered it is consistent.

The reason is when Google searches it is looking for the NAP listed for other businesses that are relevant to the one queried ranked by popularity.

One way to build popularity is by creating “backlinks” these are having a link to your webpage located on another similar site. This provides the search engine a reference and thus turns your site up in the queries. Using email marketing is another great way to make the most of your business blogging efforts.

Keep Updated

Along with keeping things like the NAP consistent, your other business data needs the same attention to detail when it comes to business blogging. This is important when optimizing for the local search engines like Localeze, Infogroup, D&B, and Acxiom. This is why webpage optimization is an important part of online marketing.

By staying up to date on any changes that occur with your business your webpage will never lose its place. There are services that offer help with SEO, however there are plenty of online articles that offer help in addition. The suggestions presented in these articles turns out to be quite useful and relevant for the purpose of optimization.

Nevertheless, business blogging is a full time endeavor and should be part of any marketing scheme for improving visibility and industry credibility. Become the expert in your field and promote your business through networking with other bloggers in similar businesses.

Naturally, becoming familiar with SEO techniques is the wisest choice when beginning a blog. Just like finding your targeted audience, some typical factors for SEO are domain authority, site structure, keyword use and the amount of backlinks in addition, quality of the backlinks.

Image: Pixabay

How to Boost Your Product Sales

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Selling online is getting more and more challenging as the web gets too crowded with businesses and entrepreneurs.

How to sell more and boost your ROI?

Here are six sales strategies you can use to get started:

1. Provide a Short Product Demo

Showing a prospective customer how your product works by using a demo can improve your sales quickly.

A good demo lets a potential customer see how your product provides a solution to their problems.

It’s important to showcase how your product addresses the challenges faced by your customers. It’s essential not just to show features but to demonstrate the ways your product can make them more efficient or increase profits.

Prospects aren’t interested in a bunch of features if they won’t help them reach their business goals.

2. Use Storytelling

Humans have been enjoying and telling stories for thousands of years. Incorporating this method into your sales strategy can gain the interest of a potential customer on a deeper level.

You can utilize this technique at every stage of your sales funnel. It might include explaining the features of your product and highlighting how you solved the problems of one of your customers by utilizing one or more of the specific elements.

If your prospects present objections, use storytelling to show them how previous customers had the same reservations before using your product.

3. Make Your Sales Pitch Exciting

In some situations, you may need to provide an effective sales pitch that’s both exciting and informative. This sale strategy requires confidence and the ability to demonstrate your expertise.

It’s essential to quickly let your prospect now that you understand their problems and can provide the solution to their business that helps them quickly and efficiently. This strategy requires researching up front so that you can immediately take control of the conversation.

4. Listening to Your Prospects by Using Revenue Intelligence

If you frequently get some type of pushback from a prospect, it can help to listen to them. Using revenue intelligence provides this by tapping into the power of AI.

Utilizing this strategy allows you to capture customer interactions such as email, face-to-face meetings, video interaction and phone calls. The system delivers insights dealing with topics, messaging and competitors, which are all current data and facts you can use to help them.

Sales and marketing have changed dramatically by using AI. It cuts out the noise and understands what’s being said, which allows you to focus on the essential factors.

For bigger companies, it is essential to set up a reliable contact center because all those interactions should be managed effectively.

5. Always Follow Up Until You Get an Answer

It can take time for some customers to make a final decision. You have to remember that they have a business to run, and buying a product from you is probably not their number one priority.

If you’ve given them your time and let them think about it, it’s essential to follow up and get a response. Until you receive a definitive answer, you should continue to perform this sale strategy — no matter how long it takes for them to tell you yes or no.

When using email follow-ups, make sure to use your business email address as this creates brand awareness. You will need to use your own domain name for that.

6. Highlight Both Risks and Opportunities

Individuals who are selling a product will often only focus on the benefits and quick results that can be achieved. In some cases, your product may provide more solutions than a prospect needs.

Rather than having a customer hit a speed bump immediately after selling them your product, it’s best if you highlight the risks as well. Some of the features of your product may be highly beneficial when used, but your prospect may not have implemented this factor. Letting them know why the future is essential by sharing other experiences via case studies can help.

By looking at your sales team and seeing how these sales strategies relate, you can choose one or more of them to assist with your process.

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How to Humanize Your Brand

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Have you ever had an amazing experience with a company and taken right to social media to express your feelings? What about a not so great experience? If you have, what were your expectations of the people behind the brand’s social media accounts?

With technology platforms on the rise, it is important to humanize companies and brand messages. It is necessary to make companies personable to foster good relations and trust, and even to drive engagement and sales. Companies also need to communicate well online because it helps people understand what they do and what they stand for, as well as stave off miscommunication and misunderstandings.

Nielson’s report estimates that 33% of users prefer to contact brands using social media as opposed to using the phone. With all of the stressors of online customer service, it is important to improve service by humanizing and communicating the brand message online.

Consumers are more likely to identify with a brand that has values in alignment with their own, and this connection will make a customer more likely to engage with the brand on an ongoing basis.

So, how can you improve online customer service by humanizing and communicating your brand message?

Lose Anonymity

A great way to help customers see a company as a personable entity, and less as a corporate business, is by personifying it and giving it a face. It also helps to garner publicity by using a company’s personality. 

It all starts with the name. Find a domain name that represents your brand and creates niche associations.

Showing personality that stands for the brand message helps to authenticate a company and increase perceived transparency, leading to customer trust and improved service. Having an authentic brand is also one of the strongest ranking factors, according to UR Digital, so being authentic will likely improve your organic search visibility as well!

Businesses can emulate personality and create brand personas by doing some of the following:

  • Feature real-life employees or customers on websites or advertisements
  • Post photos of the human elements of the business, from candid photos on the job to snapshots from employee functions
  • Publish articles and other literature from the company’s employees on a blog or by guest blogging
  • Host and/or give talks sponsored by the company that pertain to the company’s area of expertise
  • Add a phone support! Even small businesses can now afford phone support with solutions like Cloud PBX.

Stay Active on Social Media Accounts

Upkeep of social media accounts is extremely important in maintaining a presence online, with 63% of millennials staying updated on companies through social networks (Leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal study).

Keeping up on accounts not only establishes the company’s existence and innovation, but also helps to stand as evidence of what the company does, promotes, and is involved in. Up-to-date accounts show the public that the company itself is online and paying attention, and shows the consumer the company is more likely to be responsive to any comments or concerns that they may have.

Some ways that a company can work on customer service via social media accounts include:

  • Being responsive and have a quick turnaround time for comments, questions, and complaints
  • Paying attention to what is being said about the company, and other companies in the industry
  • Being interactive through new postings, trend followings, and consumer engagement
  • Partaking in active listening, admitting mistakes and sharing apologies, and showing implementation of customer suggestions

“Over” Communicate

To improve your customer communication, it is a good idea to do what may seem to be over communication. Take time to ask yourself some of the following: Is your brand message clearly stated? Are there more than adequate ways for customers to contact you? Is your message expressed in terms that are easily understood?

Businesses can improve on communication by taking some of these things into account:

  • Blatantly stated brand messages, or easily accessible mission and value statements
  • Easy to understand language and tone (in fact, a study from Carnegie Melon showed that most presidential candidates speak at a 6th-8th-grade education level)
  • Regular check-ins with customers
  • Phone, chat, email, and other communication support availability and offerings at all times

Research Your Current Brand’s Sentiment

What do people think of you and your brand? Which associations does it currently trigger?

Text Optimizer helps you find answers to all those questions by searching for your brand name in Google and analyzing search snippets that show up for that search.

Here’s how semantic search works if you are curious!

Cater to the Audience

Showing interest in the audience is an important part of good communication with consumers because it often cultivates further engagement.

By incorporating and inviting feedback from customers, it not only allows for businesses to assess their target audience, but it also lets the audience feel included and important. In addition, adding content that the audience is interested in helps the audience see the company as a more human entity with a shared interest, something that will encourage the audience to take a liking to the company.

Companies can cater to the audience in many ways, such as:

  • Posting things for enjoyment, not simply promotion of the brand
  • Using consumer generated or created content
  • Hosting audience involvement initiatives such as social media campaign competitions or giveaways
  • Sharing, liking, or re-tweeting pertinent customer mentions or tags

Cultivating Communication and Humanization Habits

Taking the first steps towards brand humanization and communication is no doubt important, but it is also imperative to continue the routine of good communication with customers.

Maintaining open lines of communication with consumers is a great way to constantly improve upon the service being offered, it enables businesses to hear how customers are feeling and adjust practices accordingly.

By taking customer thoughts and feelings into consideration, customers and businesses can foster positive and long-term relationships, which culminate into giving customers the service they want.