Successful Blog

Why Working Bloggers Should Hire a Personal Accountant

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Blogging is a great way to make extra income or to work from home. You get to set your own hours, write about what interests you, and control your earnings potential. However, this type of work does not make you immune from tax responsibility. No matter how much you make blogging, and no matter if blogging is your primary job or just something you do on the side, you will have to report your earnings and pay taxes on them.

Before you get out your tax forms and start filing yourself, consider these reasons why you should hire an accountant to help you instead:

You Have a Greater Responsibility

There are many overlooked benefits to working for someone else — namely, that a corporate employer pays payroll and social-security taxes on your behalf. If you earn more than $400 a year from your blogging work, you are considered “self-employed,” and you will have to pay your own payroll taxes and a self-employment tax. Depending on the type of work you do and how much you earn, you may have other tax obligations. An accountant can help you understand all of your responsibilities and ensure that you are being compliant with the law.

Deductions are Available

You know how so many large companies and the millionaires who run them are able to minimize the amount of taxes they pay? They hire accountants to help them find deductions. You can do the same.

Working for yourself entitles you to a number of deductions, which may include your cell phone bill, Internet service, computers and other equipment, part of your rent, items to give away on your blog, and more. An accountant can educate you about all the deductions to which you are entitled and help you minimize your tax obligation, helping you to keep more of your earnings.

Small Business Guidance

Accountants have expertise in the tax code and can offer guidance about the intricate laws that govern small businesses. If you hire an accountant, you can get advice about best business practices as you grow. For example, you may learn that you need to improve your record-keeping practices, or maybe you’ll learn that buying a computer with energy-saving technology can entitle you to credits. Not only will an accountant help you shape the best tax situation in the current year, but he or she can also help you ensure the best financial health of your business going forward.

Audit Advice

Did you overlook reporting earnings one year? Or did you incorrectly report some deductions? If previous reporting errors have resulted in an audit, an accountant can offer you advice on dealing with the IRS and on what your rights and responsibilities are. An audit can result in serious fines and other legal trouble. Hiring an accountant can ensure that you have someone working with you to fight for your interests and minimize the repercussions. If you hire an accountant to help you file your taxes, you are usually entitled to free assistance if an audit of that tax year is conducted.

No matter how much money you make blogging, you are required to report your earnings to the IRS and to pay the appropriate taxes. An accountant can offer you guidance and expertise to minimize your tax responsibility while still ensuring that you are in compliance with all the rules and regulations regarding your business.

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Author’s Bio:
Heather Green is a freelance writer for several regional magazines in North Carolina as well as a resident blogger for onlinenursingdegrees.org. Her writing experience includes fashion, business, health, agriculture and a wide range of other topics. Heather has just completed research on health care admin degrees and online physical therapy aide degrees

Thank you, Heather!

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

Construct Your Post or Presentation Like a Three-Course Meal

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How to blog series

The Key is Know What You Want to Say

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Recently someone told me that he’s been trying to write a a blog post for almost a week now and every time he tired he ended deleting it.

“Everything I write sounds like a valley girl talking to alien first grader. Nothing makes sense. It’s all over the place.”

“What is it that you want to say?”

He started at me and then admitted, “I don’t know.”

It’s hard to write clearly if you don’t know what you want to say.

Try constructing an idea like a three-course meal.

Construct Your Post or Presentation Like a Three-Course Meal

If you think of an article or a presentation as a fine meal, the middle is the main course. That’s where the fine dining is. It’s the centerpiece. The entree takes the longest time and the most care. The executive chef is the one who plans it and prepares it. Put your best effort there–where it counts.

So decide what you’ll be serving as the key part of the meal first thing.

  • Is it something you’ve just learned, observed, or read about that’s set you thinking?
  • Is it a pattern of behavior that keeps appearing that you want highlight and encourage or discourage?
  • Could it be your view about an event you’re about to be attending?
  • Have noticed something in another industry that seems to apply to the one that you work in?
  • Have you found a solution to a common problem or a problem with a commonly promoted solution?

Gather the thoughts and proofs that will make the message of your post or presentation delicious to take in. Once you’ve got that underway, you can choose the appetizer and the dessert.

Maybe you’ll whet the audience’s appetite with a story that brings them to the problem you’re solving or a question that you’ll answer fully in a very satisfying ending. Take the time to see how the beginning and end compliment each other to tie all together.

In this manner …

  • Course 1: Give readers a taste of your topic. This gives you a chance to capture their attention and focus their minds on your ideas. You can draw them in and prepare them for what you are about to say. By starting in the middle you already know what that is. So writing this part is much easier.
  • Course 2: Serve up your ideas with facts and details to support them. By starting in the middle, you can spend your time polishing the finer points and placing your brand in the best light for readers to discover its value on their own.
  • Course 3: Leave your audience satisfied with tidbits of why your ideas are important to them or give them reason to reflect back on what you said. Show that you fulfilled your promise. Let your audience savor the fact that your article was a service to them, and they’ll understand why coming back to see you is a good idea.

There’s added value in presenting your information as a three-course article. Starting in the middle establishes a clear structure that’s easy to follow. It frees your audience to concentrate on the information that reveals your story and shows your expertise.

How do you structure your blog posts and your presentations?

Be irresistible.

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

Engagement: Five Keys to Get People Inside What You Write

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You Already Know This

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After decades of print publishing, writing publicly was never a big deal for me. I didn’t have a shy moment about my first blog post. I still consider it fine writing. I did watch my stats to see whether anyone read it. Waited days on end for my first comment from someone I didn’t know.

But I was surprised to find the difference of having an audience show up soon after I wrote.
And there was the difference in how they responded.
When I’d been in publishing, people responding had always been responding from a work point of view.
This responding to ideas because they were important, interesting, thought-provoking, or intriguing was something new.

People were connecting by what they said.
Minds were meeting in what they typed and what they read.

It was different than print.

Words like conversation and community took on new meaning.
We explored what they meant.

It was different from print.

I began observing, testing, asking, listening, and learning.
Yet the more I started trying, less I was succeeding.

Then, I came face to face with the answer in a short note someone wrote on his own blog about my writing. He said my blog posts were so well written the only response he could come up with was “beautiful job.”

The blog posts I’d been writing were full, finished, final and composed.
There wasn’t much room for anyone to participate in them.

I began observing, testing, asking, listening, and learning again. What I learned were four keys to keeping the conversation open. These won’t surprise or stun you. You already know them. They’re what we all do when we talk to any person we value.

Do these four things and you’ll find people getting inside what you’re writing.

  1. Come down from the podium. Talk to your audience like a people who can listen. Let them be as smart as you are, even when they don’t know what you do.

  2. Don’t tie things up with a bow. Leave what you say a little unfinished. Don’t try so hard to ferret out everything on your bulleted list. Don’t ask and answer every question. Then your audience has room to add a word in. When a talking person fills in every idea and detail before anyone else talks, that’s called a speech. The response becomes applause or an awful silence.

  3. Blog your experience. Information is everywhere, but your experience of that information is unique and interesting. People respond to what you share that’s you. I don’t have to see myself responding the way you would for what you say to resonate.

  4. Care about what you’re saying. Care so much that you write without hesitation, without apology. Don’t shy away from the true north of what it means to you. Anything less is too complicated and makes me nervous for you. If you don’t care enough to put yourself into it, why would I care enough to read it?

  5. Make the ending satisfying and about them. Let them know again why they care about what they just read. If you end with a question, think about what you’re asking. Could you answer it? What sort answer are you expecting? As a reader would you take time to answer it?

Nothing stunning. It’s remembering that the people reading are people who want to connect with us not people who want to grade our papers. It all gets easier when we remember to let people be part of what we’re writing.

Have you found things get easier when you focus on the people reading?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

The Grinch Who Stole Blogging Past

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As your business winds down 2011 and looks forward to a fresh start, it is likely to review company practices for the past 12 months to see what worked, what did not work, and what flat out needs changing in 2012.

If your company blogs for its customers now is as good time as any to review the material you put out there for clients and others, seeing what is resonating with those who may end up putting money in your pocket.

In the event your company blog is getting little or no traffic at all, perhaps you can relate to those poor people down there in “Whooville,” those same folks who are targeted every year at this time by none other than The Grinch.

You see, The Grinch doesn’t like happy things, one of which is a productive company blog that drives traffic to your Web site, increasing the chances of selling your products and/or services.

So how can you outsmart The Grinch at his own game?

Well, you need to:

  • Set your blogging goals for 2012 – What is it exactly that you seek to accomplish with your company’s blog? Are there clear intentions with the blog or are you just seeking to fill some space and/or producing a blog because others do it? Don’t wander out into the cold aimlessly with your blog this winter, map out where you want it to go ahead of time;
  • Peer in on some successful company blogs – They say copying is the greatest form of flattery. While you do not want to duplicate a rival’s blog, you can certainly learn from them as to what is working and what is not. See how they interact in real-time with their customers, if they blog about industry trends and analysis, do they mention and/or offer special deals, coupons etc. through their blogs;
  • Review your content – No blog is successful if it contains stale and boring content. If your staff does not have the proper time to give to a blog, then you need to think twice about having it in the first place. The more successful blogs are those that provide relevant content, are updated frequently, have an appealing look to them and are rich in keywords that search engines will pick up on. If your company blog has trouble meeting some or all of those areas, you seriously need to rethink the purpose of having one;
  • Balance communicating and sales – If the company blog is just one big sales pitch, it will likely fall on deaf ears for the most part. You need to find the proper balance between selling and serving, i.e. the blog should provide informative material for your customers and potential clients, not be an advertorial time and time again. You will likely be in a tug-of-war between your marketing/editorial folks and the sales staff. The former will want to provide solid copy that offers relevant content, while the sales team will seek to turn the blog into one big sales pitch;
  • Alter your posting times – When posting your blog, alter the times it goes live to the public. Some helpful hints include…. Fridays are a bad day to post because a lot of people have their minds off of work and turned towards the weekend. Then again, a blog centered on outdoor activities and purchases can be good for this time of the week. Tuesdays are generally considered a good day to post due to the fact Monday is out of the way and more attention is likely to be paid to it. Lastly, make sure to end the blog with a call to action so that customers and those potentially interested in your business have reason to respond;
  • Lastly, use your blog to interact with customers – Real-time interaction with customers is priceless, even when they are upset with you and your products and/or services. The one thing you need to remember is that not all businesses have company blogs, hence you have an additional means by which to interact with customers that they do not. Take advantage of that opportunity and speak to your customers on a regular basis.

Your company’s blog can be the envy of many other businesses if you devote the right time and resources to it.

Heck, even The Grinch would smile about that.

Photo credit: holderbaum.educationextras.com

Dave Thomas, who covers among other items home-based jobs, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

How Images Can Make Your Blog Post Demand to Be Read

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How to blog series

A Guest Post by
Chris Lamphear

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Successfully Working From a Home-based Office

Be Compelling. It’s one of the most important commandments for any successful blogger. But after you’ve written a post full of value for your reader, your job isn’t done. You have to figure out how to make your post jump off the page and demand to be read, otherwise all the work you’ve done writing the perfect post will be for naught.

I’ve been writing articles and promotional copy for more than twenty years and have learned that an attention-grabbing image is a must if you want to be read. I even started creating my own images and over time figured out the type of images that do the best job. Here’s what I’ve learned …

1. The image should communicate a concept.

Your reader wants to learn about a certain topic; that’s how he or she landed on your article. An accompanying image must clearly illustrate the same concept the reader is interested in. Don’t go with a pretty but generic picture. Ask yourself, “If I just stumbled here and didn’t know what this post was about, would this image tell me?” Make sure you pick a photo or illustration that clearly makes the very same points you’re writing about.

2. The image should be simple.

You have about one second to convince your reader to spend time with your article, and the less complex detail getting in the way of communicating your message, the better. The reader should not have to study the image to get to an “Aha!” moment and uncover your point. Think of the picture as a billboard shooting through your field of vision while you speed down a freeway. The most effective and powerful images are those that make an immediate impact. Be clear and you’ll get attention.

3. Intelligent use of vibrant color is candy for the eye.

Certain colors like red are flags that tell the reader the image is important and pull the eyes in. Stay away from drab, dull colors; instead look for primary and bright colors that jump off the page and say “look at this!” Here’s an example of an image of the word Goal with a target and arrow. Red is a color that tells the eyes “This is important,” and when the reader sees it and absorbs the message, determining this is in fact the subject he or she wants to learn about, you have succeeded.

4. Words in pictures tell a story.

Sometimes the best way to make your subject matter jump out and demand attention is to pick a picture that embeds that very word right inside it. Here’s an example: a two-way street sign with the words You Decide. Sometimes an image that incorporates a word or two can pull double duty, telling a reader what your post is all about more quickly than a wordless image can. In this sense, a word truly is worth a thousand pictures.

5. Relevant images = good SEO.

As a bonus, having images with titles and alt tags that support your subject could help you with SEO efforts. Communication is becoming more visual every day, and Google Image Search is being used by more and more people to quickly find the content they need. Be sure to include the appropriate image information in your code, such as title and alt description, and make sure you title the picture file something that matches your content.

I’ve decided to share my images with others like you to help you communicate your messages. Use one of my pictures in a post and see if it makes a difference! I’ll give you one in exchange for a link and credit. Just take a look at my royalty-free stock photo website and let me know what image you’d like to use. Click on the Contact Us page at www.theideadesk.com and tell me what you’d like to use. Good luck!

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Author’s Bio:
Chris Lamphear is author and owner of the ideadesk blog. where he writes about how to use design to boost the effectiveness of your communication, from winning new customers to growing relationships. Through the blog, I also offer free images from his site for royalty-free stock photos, theideadesk.com

A Good-Bye from Terez

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By Terez Howard

Passion, Reason and Success: An Impenetrable Triad

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“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” — Benjamin Franklin

In the blogging business, do you think that passion should make your business decisions? Probably not. But should it be the motivating force behind your work? No harm there.

I have a confession to make. I have a passion. That passion has been alive for 5 years. During that time, I’ve read, researched and learned a plethora of information. I’ve hungered for more information and found myself starved. I desired to give people what I had been craving. More information.

I spent a few months writing more than 35,000 words on the topic of black natural hair. I spent April designing a website and compiling all of this information into an organized manner to give other naturals a whisper of the information we yearn for. This whisper will transform into a shout because my passion still burns and will grow.

What does this mean for me?

I’m not going to go into great detail about why I decided to write about natural hair. I’m not going to tell you my personal story with natural hair because I doubt that you care. What I want you to know is that this passion of mine has taken hold of my time and energy. Since I’ve always been one to keep my writing business hours at a part time level, that means letting some things go.

My guest blogging here is one of those things. Jael Strong too will cease guest blogging and focus on pursuing creative writing, her passion.

What does this mean for you?

Maybe nothing.

But, it might make think about evaluating your circumstances, including your work schedule and productivity. Are you working your passion? If you are, are you spending enough time to develop it? Are you spending too much time on it? Are you being reasonable?

Benjamin Franklin put it so well. “If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”

Please be honest with yourself. There’s no sense in lying to yourself.

As for me, if you’re interested in the natural hair scene, you will see me around.

If not, know that I’m very grateful to have been here. Thank you, Liz, for the opportunity to know you and learn from your great wisdom. Thank you, readers, for checking in, commenting, tweeting and driving me to success.

And yes, I do think I’m successful, even though I’ve just recently started this endeavor.

I believe in what Pablo Picasso once said, “Action is the foundational key to all success.”

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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, for sharing yourself and your insights on my blog!

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