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10 insider tips for the traveling blogger

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The traveling blogger is a fish out of water.

Away from the comforts of the home coffee maker, fluffy bunny slippers, and reliable wifi, they must be prepared for anything.

Of course it’s great to step out of your comfort zone and see humans face to face. It’s fantastic to get out your passport and see the world. It’s even better if you can continue to run your business without skipping a beat.

This blog post is a handy dandy roundup of my 10 best insider tips for the traveling blogger.

Use these as a starting point, and you won’t end up in the fetal position in your hotel hallway, begging passers-by for their Mophie chargers (see Tip #1).

Tip #1 – Be All Powerful

It’s more important to pack your charging cords than to pack your underwear. Seriously. But here’s a great tip I received from my sister-in-law (who travels frequently). If you forget your charger, ask at the hotel front desk; often they have a pile of cords that have been left behind by your fellow travelers. Away from my hotel, I always maintain my charge with my Mophie, the greatest invention since sliced bread. Throw a power strip in your suitcase for bonus points.

Tip #2 – Stay Connected (but Securely)

You know not to go on sensitive sites or apps using hotel free WiFi, right? It’s a little better if it’s password protected, but you still need to be cautious. The pros use a VPN to be completely secure while traveling. If you’re concerned, you can even buy a temporary VPN service, which simply encrypts your activity to keep the bad guys away.

Tip #3 – Leave Your Room

Writers need to fill their brains with new ideas, new viewpoints, and fresh air. Don’t go into your hotel room, close the blackout curtains, and eat room service. Be sure you keep up your healthy routines, use the fitness center or go for a jog outside! You might find yourself full of blogging inspiration from your new location.

Tip #4 – Be Prepared

At some point in your travels, you may find yourself in an unfamiliar conference room, in a long tunnel, or stuck in the middle of nowhere. Some things that will ease your panic: a USB stick with your presentation or work-in-progress on it, pre-loaded Google Maps, Band-Aids (for the blisters from your new shoes), and a granola bar (in case they’re serving Haggis).

Tip #5 – When in Rome…

If you’re traveling out of the country, don’t forget to check your data plans for overseas travel (some phone carriers have amazing roaming deals now). Do yourself a favor and buy a plug adaptor (American plugs won’t work in Europe). Appreciate the cultural differences and educate yourself about them before you go (in some countries, you are expected to sit in front with a taxi driver, rather than in the back). Pack a washcloth/facecloth if those are important to your routine, as they won’t be provided in most European hotels.

Tip #6 – Fly in Style

If you travel frequently, invest a little bit of time and money into TSA Precheck, you’ll thank me later. Take advantage of curbside check in (bring $2 per bag for the expected tip) and wave at the long line of people who inexplicably always wait in the inside queues. Take a screenshot of your digital boarding pass to access it quicker on your phone. While we’re talking about phones, download the airline’s app if they have one, and get details like gate change alerts and delay notifications early.

It goes without saying (hopefully), but it’s always a good idea to dress nicely and be respectful to the airline personnel, giving you both good karma and a better chance at being upgraded.

Tip #7 – Get Ahead of the Curve

Use your blogging platform to queue up some posts in advance of your trip. Use any downtime during the year to stockpile some great posts that are evergreen and can go live when you’re traveling. Queue up your blog post social promotion as well, while you’re at it.

Tip #8 – Don’t Forget to Bring Back Content

Take pictures, do some video interviews, do some travel journaling…make sure that you come back with content you can use for the rest of the year. You might want to bring a fresh notebook so you can jot down ideas on the road.

Tip #9 – Be Suitcase Savvy

Put something weird or colorful on your suitcase handle so you can identify it at baggage claim. Put a plastic trash bag in the suitcase for your wet swimsuit or dirty laundry. Pack like a flight attendant by rolling everything; you can fit twice the number of outfits. When your dentist gives you that little packet with a toothbrush and toothpaste, put it in your suitcase and just leave it in there for your next trip.

Tip #10 – Consider Unplugging Completely

This goes against all of the previous “bring your cords” advice, but if you’re able, consider taking a digital break. If you’re traveling because you’re supposed to be on vacation, prep some content in advance, let your audience know that you’re going away for a week or two, and take a deep breath. It’s important to be consistent, but it’s even more important to maintain your sanity.

What’s your best travel tip for the road-weary blogger?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Make your blog worth bingeing like House of Cards

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My husband and I recently finished an epic binge of Breaking Bad (yes, I miss Jessy already). Next we’ve queued up House of Cards’ most recent season for the next binge marathon.

Now that quality shows are available in an instant, on any screen you choose, we can soak in three or four years worth of episodes over a few weeks.

No more waiting for the cliff-hanger resolution, no more slow reveal of the “will they or won’t they.”

When you binge, you are marinating in the characters, settings, and stories in a very intense way, and it increases your sense of closeness to the characters and the show.

Wouldn’t it be cool if your blog was like that? Maybe your bounce rate would be 10% instead of 75%.

Here are some ideas that will make your blog worth bingeing

Make it easy to binge

Give your readers easy cues for entering and browsing your site, like “start here if you’re new” pages, or boxes that highlight your most popular posts.

Put it all out there at once

Think about creating a blog series, and tease it in advance. Release the whole series at one time instead of one post per week. I know that I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve the night before a new season of Orange is the New Black arrives on Netflix.

Open a new window for links

This is a simple but often-overlooked technique. When someone clicks a link or image on your site, make it pop open a new tab or window. You don’t want people to be leaving your site and letting the screen door shut behind them. You want them to briefly check out the additional information and then resume the binge.

Include a call to action at end of content

What do you want your reader to do? Why does your blog exist? Make sure that you are telling them often. Give them a homework assignment, put a link to your latest book, or ask for comments/shares, but don’t just leave them hanging.

Promote, promote, promote

The House of Cards ads and promos were ubiquitous before the last season appeared. Teaser videos, interviews, and traditional ads were part of the PR blitz. When is the last time you thought about the way your promote your blog? Could you do an interview with a fellow blogger in your industry? Try a Facebook ad?

Surprise & delight to encourage word of mouth/sharing

Remember that time the major character was tossed in front of a speeding Metro train? You don’t have to go to that extreme, but your blog should include moments of surprise that make readers want to talk about it.

Make it easy to share

I can’t count the number of times I find a great blog, get very enthusiastic about a particular post, and can’t find the social sharing buttons (or even a subscribe button, sometimes). Once you’ve got me excited, don’t leave me hanging. Show me the buttons! (Apologies to Jerry Maguire.)

Tap into emotions

Emotion is the most direct way into someone’s world. Your blog should share (judiciously) personal tidbits that give your readers insight and attachment to your point of view. When Frank Underwood speaks directly to the camera, breaking the “fourth wall,” it brings us directly into the show.

Now I’ve confessed to some of the shows I’m bingeing. What is in your queue right now? Share your binge-worthiest shows and/or blogs with the rest of us!

If you have tips about how to make your blog worth bingeing, please share those too.

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

 

 

10 Mac Apps for Blogging Productivity

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mac-apps-bloggingRunning a blog is so much more work than people assume. The assumption is the bigger it gets, the more work is involved. But that isn’t close to being true; building it to a point where people are regularly visiting is just as much work as maintaining it once it gets there.

For some people it becomes a full time job, and one that doesn’t pay nearly enough for the first couple of years.

You have to squeeze everything you can out of every single moment spent working on your blog. Not just on the content, but general management such as social, reader engagement, research, outreach, SEO, marketing, hosting issues, backups, and more. For Mac users, these tools can help make the process of running a blog infinitely easier to handle, and save a lot of time.

WriteRoom

WriteRoom

Writing is easy. Writing without distractions if you are like me is next to impossible without help. There is so much waiting just in a browser window to pull our attention away, and before long a post that should have taken thirty minutes is verging on ninety. WriteRoom creates a fullscreen writing page that is sparse, simple, and made to force your brain to behave.

It has a black screen with green text to reduce eye strain, and nothing else that might cause you to look away from the words you are writing. It costs $9.99, but it practically pays for itself with the time you save. And time is money, as they say.

First Site Guide lists more writing tools you can find handy! That list is pretty impressive!

Writer

Want something a bit more thorough? Writer is another MacOS application that is also compatible with Apple and Android mobile and tablet devices.

It creates a clean, white page with black text, and has additional features like Night Mode and an integrated document library. It costs more as a consequence, at $19.99. But if you want Swipe Preview controls and device syncing on their own cloud, it is a great deal.

Blogo

Blogo

If you have WordPress and want to knock a few bucks off the price, Blogo is $14.99 and has many of the same features. You can moderate, reply to and delete comments, create shortcuts, and manage multiple blogs at once.

Plus the post scheduling, and image resizing/editing that could give it a real edge over other apps. It might still be a little too basic for some, but if you want a clean blogging platform that has plenty of functions, this should fit the bill nicely.

Todoist

Todoist is the tool I use most in both my personal and professional life. At first sight it is a basic to do list. But if you look deeper, it is a whole organizational system. Create projects and build task lists, giving them deadline, recurring dates, and priority. Set reminders, and sync across all devices.

I have a project set for content ideas, and build my editorial calendar right in the app so I can keep it organized with all other tasks. It is a real lifesaver, and the premium cost annually is peanuts.

SnagIt

SnagIt

This is one of my new favorite tools, even if it comes with a bit more of a price tag than I am used to paying. SnagIt is a screenshot and screencast capture app that lets you effortlessly create visual content to share with your readers. I make screencaps, infographics and tutorial videos, which can be edited and enhanced right there in the app.

It costs $49.95, with additional S&H if you choose to get a boxed copy as well as the digital download. But it is more advanced than free to cheaper screencapture tools, and more appropriate if you want to keep content at a pro level.

You can backup all your screenshots and screencasts either locally or in the cloud. The latter option is recommended by me personally because I am a fan of storing all my work in the cloud and access the database from my business trips, home, work, etc. You can learn more about cloud storage here.

Canva

Infographics are amazing, and they to this day provide me with the greatest traffic and social engagement of any other form of visual content I use. But man are they time consuming to create! I can spend literally weeks trying to create a thorough and high quality infographic with a lot of information, especially when presenting case studies alongside statistics.

At least it used to take that long, until I gave in and tried Canva. Originally I had thought all generator tools were pointless because they made cookie cutter content that would be less effective. But I was wrong; Canva is a fantastic tool that makes infographic creation faster and the results even higher quality.

You can even use it to create posters to decorate your workplace for more motivation and inspiration.

Toggl

Toggl

Finally, the most important way to remain productive is to properly manage your time. That means managing your breaks, as well. Toggl is a super simple time tracking tool that works on the Pomodoro technique.

You work for a stretch, then take a break. Work for another stretch, then take another break. It will make you more productive, and keep you from burning out.

Leechblock

If you need to write in a browser but want to block distracting websites, Leechblock is a pretty good option. It provides customizable controls that let you either block sites like Facebook and YouTube during times you should be working, or blocks them after you have spent a certain amount of time there.

As a self confessed addict who can get lost down the Reddit and YouTube rabbit holes on a daily basis, this has been an important productivity tool in my own life. It is available as a Firefox addon

StayFocusd

Similar to Leechblock, this is an extension for Chrome that works in much the same way. What makes it handy on its own is the ability to set the “Nuclear Option”. This will block all sites you have listed as restricted for a period of one or more hours, depending on your preferences.

You can also set it to not allow you to switch it off until the end of the block time, by not letting you access the extensions menu in your settings.

Desk PM

Desk PM won the Best App of 2014 award, and for good reason. You can write from the first note taking process to the publishing and monitoring step right from the app, with compatibility with several blogging platforms.

They have basic tools like word and character count that you would expect from any word processing tool, but with greater features such as post scheduling. At $19.99 it is a really impressive blogging tool. Especially given the high price tag for platforms dealing with high volume blogs.

Any tools to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!

How Local Businesses Can Run Their Blogs Like Online Pros

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By Jessy Troy

Local businesses have a bit of a reputation for having awful blogs. It isn’t surprising; local companies tend to be brick and mortar, and the ever changing world of online marketing can be difficult to keep up with, even for experts. Local businesses are used to promoting on a more traditional level.

But blogging offers a cost efficient, simple and effective means of reaching your target audience. Having a good content strategy in place means getting more for less, and competing with those local companies that have managed to figure out a good social angle.

Here are some ways that local businesses can run their company like pros.

Remember That SEO Counts, But Has To Be Modified For Location

Search engine optimization has moved leaps and bounds since the days of keyword stuffing and page spamming. Google’s shifting algorithm has made the rules a lot harder to follow, but thankfully taken some of the power from shady practices that rewarded bad, or even stolen, content.

When scaling for local content, you have to remember that location is going to be your best friend. Your industry is probably vast, so you can’t compete based on those keywords alone. But add your city and you have a much smaller pool.

For example, “Thai restaurant” is going to generate way too many leads, and Google will narrow it for the user, but maybe not narrowed enough. But “Thai restaurant San Francisco” is much better. “Thai restaurant San Francisco Hyde Street” is another one you could use, or your area code.

Not only will this narrow results, but it is what people are more likely to search for.

Make sure you submit your blog to high-quality local directories like this one. This helps you get found!

Being hosted locally increases search visibility dramatically. Here’s the list of hosting providers where you can use country filters to search. Handy!

Integrate With Social, Then Target Based On Geolocation Stats

You can integrate your blog with social networking, and start taking advantage of ads. Then use those pages to target people as they come into your area. It is one of the many benefits of mobile social use, such as through Facebook apps.

In fact, Facebook has a whole host of ways to market as a local business. Check out their page on Local Awareness Ads for more information.

Write About What People In Your Area Care About

Most of your blog’s success is going to come down to the content. While you can offer general information about your industry, including helpful how-to’s, people can get these anywhere on the web. You should be trying to exploit the fact that you are local, and so have a local touch to your business.

Write about things you know your community cares about. Follow a tone that is appropriate for the customers you know you will be looking to speak to. Are these people with large families. Young professional couples? Singles?

Advertise Your Blog On Local Media

You can make people aware of your blog by talking about it on local media. Many local news shows, radio stations, newsletters and newspapers will do features of local businesses. You can casually mention during one of these spots that you have a blog people can go to for whatever information you provide.

Of course, this should not be the primary message behind a media spot. But it is a nice aside that could help create a loyal reader base.

Find Other Blogs With A Following Locally, Then Guest Post

Are there other blogs that are locally based and get a decent amount of visitors? They might be a good place to go to look for a guest spot! Contact the blog owners and pitch a post that you think would be valuable to their readers. Tell the who you are and offer to put a link to their blog on your website.

Connections like this can be very helpful for both parties. Not to mention a good chance to begin networking offline with others in your area.

Ask Local Experts For Interviews, Advice, and Quotes

There is a local blog in my city that has an attorney on every two weeks to write a blog post answering people’s questions about accident claims and issues. The company in question is an auto shop that specializes in fixing accident damage.

Notice how they managed to expand out of their direct industry topic, while remaining relevant, and in a way that is much more helpful to their customers. After all, people are going to them to fix their car, so blog posts teaching how to do anything more than basic maintenance would be pointless. But they know their customers would be facing legal claims, and so offer help that way.

It is an ingenious idea we can all take note of.

Blog About Local Events

What local events are coming to your area? Find out, build hype, attend, and then blog about it. Write a big post showing pictures taken, telling stories, and thanking people for attending. Run a contest in the lead up to get customer participations. Set up a booth with gifts, or interactive party activities.

You can even microblog live, using the event hashtag on Twitter. This is a great way to piggy back off the popularity of, say, a festival.

Tell Local Stories

You have an entire community of people who you can introduce on your blog! Tell the stories of those around you. Do interviews, and find out the interesting details about people’s lives. Do spotlights, and show your appreciation for the people in your area that make your city a great place to live.

Small, local businesses can really get away with this tactic in a way corporations can’t. Imagine for a second that Walmart releases a campaign talking about an old woman who has saved money and lives off of her small pension shopping at Walmart. Seems exploitive, and possibly a fake story by an actor, right?

Now imagine that same situation, but on the blog of a small, local shop. The impact is much greater there, more genuine.

Take Your Local Business Blogging Level To ‘Expert’

Blogging is a great way for local businesses to get into the online marketing game. Do you have any tips? Let us know in the comments!

Author’s Bio: Jessy Troy is a creative writer and editor at Social Media Sun. She Tweets as @JessyTroy.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Guest Posting

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Market Segmentation Background Concept GlowingWhether your business is a major one or a one-person show, the importance of spreading the word about your brand can never be taken for granted.

Think about it; more and more consumers are visiting company’s websites and social media initiatives. If your company is not actively pursuing potential business via the Internet, can you really survive over the long haul?

While some companies can keep the revenue door open because they’ve been around forever and/or rely primarily on walk-in business, a much larger number needs some degree of web presence.

One of the ways you can increase your web profile is by guest posting.

Do You Hire SEO Help Along the Way?

For those companies looking to either start with guest posting or ramp up their current efforts, one thing to consider is whether or not you can do the work in-house or will require outside assistance. If you find the right guest posting services provider, your work may become all the more easier.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to properly promoting your brand, with search engine optimization (SEO) playing a key role in that process.

Let’s use the example of a company blog.

If you have a blog, how often are you updating it? If the answer is frequently (and that means with relevant content, images, data, infographics etc.), that’s a good start. If the response is infrequently, then there is work to be done.

With the right SEO plan in place; your content marketing efforts can outdo the competition and then some.

By strategically placing a keyword link in the content, you are much more likely to drive traffic back to the site listed in the link.

If you’re providing guest posting content related to your brand on other sites, by all means push for having a relevant link back to your site added to the article you author. In doing so, you increase the odds of having more visitors pay you a visit online.

So, what are the keys to writing good guest posts that ultimately will bring more traffic your way?

Among them:

  1. Write with a purpose – For starters, make sure you have a purpose behind your writing efforts. If you’re trying to make a sales pitch instead of providing worthwhile content to readers/potential customers, you stand a good chance of losing their interest. The purpose of your content should be giving the reader something valuable, not something they hear from way too many other business;
  2. Don’t be pushy with sales – When you stop and think about it, consumers get all but hit over the head daily with sales pitches, so don’t pile on. You can be rather discreet with your sales initiatives by noting that current or first-time customers could be receiving deals if they do business with you without shoving a sale down their throats. Share with them the benefits that come with being one of your clients. When you do that, you stand a much higher percentage of landing a sale;
  3. Clean and exciting copy – Last but certainly not least, be sure to have content that is not littered with errors, boring or no images at all, and is easy to share amongst consumers. Make sure your keyword links all work and lead to the relevant page/s you want consumers to go to, not an error message. If a consumer has trouble surfing your site, especially if they want to see content they think would be worthwhile to them, don’t hold your breath waiting for them to return.

When it comes to solid content marketing, are you writing copy that will sell itself?

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes on a variety of business topics for different websites.

Enlist, Engage, Empower

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What is your answer to your Community's call?What do you do with those that you attract to your community? The short answer is “Talk to them!”

The long answer is that you treat all of them with respect and dignity, find out what it is that they are looking for, and help them to find it.

Once you begin to build a community, you will find that there are some that are more interested in getting involved than others. One of the things that this kind of community member is looking for is Engagement. These readers and “doers” will enlist in your community expressly to get involved with other people – to talk, to listen, to help. They are looking to be a part of something larger than themselves.

Your goal should be to empower them to do so

How does your blog or website deliver to this type of reader/community member? Is there a comments feature that allows people to post their own opinion? How about a forum where the members can engage each other in a much broader fashion?

There are two schools of thought on allowing comments on a blog. One holds that it allows the readers to engage the author, and each other, in a discussion – a conversation – about the topic of the post. This can be a very powerful method of getting the word out about your site, as more people talk about and comment. The downside of this is the possibility of spam – fake comments from pr0n sites – and that you need to monitor the comments for inappropriate behavior. This is the primary rationale for the second school of thought on comments – don’t allow them.

How should you manage your empowered community?

Creating and nurturing a community takes time and effort. It means that not only do you need to give of yourself to create the content that the community is looking for, you need to share part of your creation with the community. A Web forum is an excellent tool for sharing this content and the responsibility for managing it. Sometimes called a bulletin board or message board, a Web forum is an online center for ongoing, in-depth discussions of specific topics and issues.

One of the more interesting features of the Web forum membership is that users frequently self-select for monitoring what is going on. As the “leader” of the community you can enlist these active volunteers to become moderators for the various topics and keep an eye on the postings and comments.

Seek these people out, encourage them to take the next step. Share of yourself and see what happens!