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16 Ways To Make Guest Blogging Easier For Yourself

December 17, 2012 by Guest Author

How to Blog

by
Tapha Ngum

cooltext443809602_strategy

When I first started guest posting, iI could barely crank out one post a week. Writing consistently, for me, was a struggle and I felt continuous discouragement – not just because I wasn’t putting out as much as I should have, but also because some of the stuff that I was putting out was not very good. I know this, because it was routinely rejected by some of the top blogs that I sent them out to.

Despite this, I continued to do the same things and plowed through with minimal success until I decided that I really had to sit down and analyze my approach. I came to the conclusion that I was really just making things harder for myself than I needed to. Largely because i was failing to implement positive habits into my routine that would assist me in my efforts.

After assessing my situation and implementing some of the better habits that I found to be helpful, as I learned more about writing – my results changed dramatically.

I now write at least 2 high quality posts a day and have not had a single one rejected since I started to really take the implementation of these positive habits seriously. My writing has been published on ProBlogger, SpeckyBoy and Onextrapixel, and many of the other larger blogs online that accept guest posts.

I believe that for those of you who are in the position that I was in a couple of months ago, the habits that I use to help me with my guest blogging now, could be very helpful.

Here are the 16 Ways To Make Guest Blogging Easier For Yourself

Below I have compiled a list of the most effective habits, for you to use. I hope that they help you improve your writing and consistency, the way they have helped me for mine.

  1. Set Clear Goals – When you are guest blogging without a goal in mind, or a purpose to which you are striving for, you make it that much more likely that you are going to quit. Set clear and concise goals and you are much more likely to stay on task.
  2. Rethink how you think about writing – Instead of thinking about the process of writing a guest post as one of agonizing drudgery, instead, think of it as a game. One where every word you write is another point on the tally. This is hard to do when you are not used to it, but once you do get the hang of it, it becomes very effective.
  3. Read affirmations – This is probably gonna have you rolling your eyes and thinking – don’t waste my time. But these really do work. When you consistently repeat something to yourself. Your mind comes to accept it. Try repeating things like – ‘I am a consistent guest poster’ or ‘my posts are always high quality’. It seems weird but trust me on this. It does the business.
  4. Read at least 3 guest posts a day – This will help you with your writing style and will also get your mind into producing the kind of writing that blog admins typically like to publish.
  5. Improve your typing speed – There are a lot of great typing games and apps that can dramatically help you to improve your writing ability. I have personally seen my post creation times decrease by upto 50% once I started to use these typing helpers.
  6. Pick a topic and write 10 posts ideas for it, per day – This will improve your ability to come up with post ideas. And if you do this in conjunction with submitting these ideas to blog owners and getting them accepted and critiqued, the quality of ideas that you produce will undoubtedly improve.
  7. Align your guest blogging efforts to a personal development goal – Even though I had started guest blogging intitially, to meet certain goals. When I first started, it was sometimes not as effective to motivate myself with these goals. Most likely because they were external. So what I did for the first month was align my guest posting efforts with improving my self discipline. The more I sat down and cranked out a guest post when I didn’t feel like doing it. The more my self discipline improved. And that helped me to be motivated to continue and improve.
  8. Rewrite popular guest posts that you like, verbatim – This puts you in the mind of the person who was creating the guest post. It helps you structure your thoughts and ideas in a way that is best for readers to digest. And overall it improves your writing ability and grammar. Because, after all, you are mimicking someone who is likely very good.
  9. Drink more water – This may seem like a strange one to talk about, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. I often would find myself so caught up with the post that I was writing that I would forget to drink. This definitely affected my ability to write well over time. You tend to make more errors and have to think a little bit longer when you are not fully hydrated, so try to remember to drink water regularly while writing. It’s very important.
  10. Stop being afraid of sounding stupid – One of the main reasons why people don’t guest blog or even write generally for that matter is, that they are afraid of seeming stupid. Or lacking knowledge in the area that they are discussing. They think that you have to be and ‘expert’ to write about something. And that, if you are not, you should not have an opinion. The beautiful thing about the blogging world is that being an ‘expert’ is not a pre-requisite. You don’t need to have years experience to talk about something. As long as you have ‘some’ experience and can share it in a coherent fashion. Your alternative perspective is likely to be just as valuable as that of an experts. That is the beauty of the internet. We can literally learn from anyone. So don’t be afraid, share your views and help others. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to participate just because you were scared that someone would call you an idiot.
  11. Read atleast 3 of the blogs previous posts before submitting a request – This will help you in two ways. One, it will give you a better idea of the post idea that you should be coming up with and two, it will also show you the preferred writing style of the blog.
  12. Be yourself – Even though some of the advice above recommends mimicking others writing to help you improve. When you write, don’t drown out your own voice. If you think that one way of saying something sounds better than another. Say it that way.
  13. Expose yourself to a lot of things in your space – Guest blogging and creativity in a general area is greatly helped by exposing yourself to a lot of things in it. Ideas are just connections after all. And the more connection points you have, the more connections you will inevitably be able to make. So read those articles and follow the relevant people on twitter for links. You will thank yourself for it later. (Just try not to overload yourself. Limit the total time spent reading and researching to a reasonable amount so you don’t get overwhelmed)
  14. Remind yourself constantly that 90% of the work is in the editing – You will not believe how much this reduces the pressure and resistance to starting. When you realize and understand that you will not likely make something extraordinary out the gate (and that nobody does), you will free yourself of a lot of the unneccessary anxiety that writing often brings with it. And you will produce more high quality work, to boot.
  15. Use the Pomodorro Technique – This is by far the best productivity technique I have ever used. What it does is segment your work into manageable chunks of time, usually 25 minutes. And then helps you to focus by making yourself eliminate any and all distractions during those chunks. This improves your work output and quality dramatically. I highly recommend it. The full ebook to help you get started can be found here, completely free.
  16. Read it out load – This is the best of all things that you can do to help you improve your writing instantly. Once you have written the post, or even as you are writing it. Read it out loud and see how it sounds. You will notice a lot if things and gradually you will make more and more intelligent edits, that will ultimately benefit the overall piece that you are writing. This is like the swiss army knife of writing. When you are one on one with your computer screen, trying to crank out a piece of work. This will save your butt.

Do you have any tactics that you use to help improve your guest blogging? Let me know in the comments!

Author’s Bio:
Tapha is an entrepreneur and the founder of MyAppTemplates.com, a site that provides customiPhone app design templates to people who cannot afford to spend $1,000s on their iPhone app design.

Thank you, Tapha! Great advice all!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: Blog Basics, Successful Blog, Writing Tagged With: bc, guest posting, LinkedIn, small business, writers-block, writing-ideas

Thanks to Week 374 SOBs

December 15, 2012 by Liz

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Filed Under: SOB Business, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, blog-promotion, LinkedIn, small business, SOB-Directory, SOB-Hall-of-Fame, Successful and Outstanding Blogs

Search Engine Ranking Factors: Understanding the Lingo

December 14, 2012 by Guest Author

by
Richard Soto

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When it comes to the world of search engine optimization, we tend to use a lot of lingo, jargon and parlance that just doesn’t exist anywhere else. In fact, most of us don’t like these peskily arbitrary words. But without them, we would have no common language with which to ensure our sites are fully optimized, fully performing, and fully earning their weight in Web gold.

That being said, breaking into this messy world of confusing phrases can be rather difficult. In order to help you gain an initiation, we’ve compiled below a set of some of the more common search engine ranking factors, as well as what they mean for you and for semantics.

Let’s get started!

Search Engine Ranking Factors: Understanding the Lingo

On-the-Page Factors: These are those factors that are contained within the body of your content, no matter what that content may be, and are fully within your control to operate. These can be things like HTML tags, keyword densities, or even just the raw content of your site. All of this counts, and if you get the hang of it, the term on-the-page factors really does make a lot of self-explanatory sense.

Off-the-Page Factors: In comparison, these are those factors that are not controlled by you or your content. They’re typically the product of a third-party source, like a social networking site, a collection of backlinks, or even just your brand and the way that it’s perceived.

Violations: This is a very important word to understand, as it can very drastically affect the way in which your page and its content ranks. Any violations are bad violations, and if they’re left unchecked, they will seriously compromise your site’s performance. To give a definition to this word, a violations is essentially anything that a search engine sees within your content or third-party extensions that it doesn’t like. This could be something like a too-dense keyword set, or perhaps graphic content. No matter what the root, if Google or other search engines find a violation, they may black-list your site and all of its content.

Weighting: This is a more abstract sort of concept, but it’s one that’s very important in today’s SEO terms. Essentially, weighting is the practice of giving certain optimization tricks and tactics more importance than others. This is usually due to a change in the way that Google crawls websites. In essence, it’s like changing the lineup of your team before a big match. If you pick the right players for the job, they’re likely to perform well—and they’ll take the whole team up with them. It’s a complex and ever-changing idea, but it’s one that’s really quite simple at its core.

Author’s Bio:
Richard Soto is the President of VIP Realty, the premier firm in Austin Tx real estate. Contact VIP Realty for more information or visit us online for up-to-date real estate information and news. You can find him on Twitter as @viprealty

Thank you, Richard. Agreeing on the vocabulary is always the best start.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: SEO, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, LinkedIn, search engine ranking factors, search engine terms, search engine vocabulary, SEO, small business

8 Ways a Human Business Takes a Holiday

December 13, 2012 by Rosemary

by
Rosemary O’Neill

Working All the Time?

Last week, I was out to dinner with my 7 year old daughter, and while we were eating, I got a ping from a customer that I needed to answer. I pulled out my iPhone and told her, “I just need to do this one thing and then I promise I’ll put it away.” She looked at me, cocked her head, and said, “so Mommy, you’re pretty much working all the time, then, right?” (Cue video of knight being shot with 20 arrows through the heart.)

Whoah. That knocked me back on my heels a bit.

Days later, her question is still pinging through my brain.

8 Ways a Human Business Takes a Holiday

I spend a lot of time writing and talking about the human-centered business, really trying to promote the idea that customers should be spoken to like humans, and employees should be treated with respect.

But there’s another human inside the equation. You are a human too. So am I.

And humans need sleep, daydreaming, play, quiet, contemplation, singing, and time to enjoy their fellow humans (both small and grownup).

If you’ve decided to run your small business with humans at the heart of it, here are some things to think about:

  1. Have you declared any “office shutdown” days over the holidays?
  2. Can you hold any necessary meetings by Skype of Google Hangout instead of going in to the office?
  3. How about flexible time during the week to allow for shopping or ice skating, as long as the work is getting done?
  4. Don’t forget the folks who make your office life bearable—how about some cookies for your FedEx person, or a video message for your favorite vendors?
  5. Regardless of which holiday you celebrate, take some time to be frivolous. Wear reindeer slippers under your desk, give someone a surprise day off, go caroling in your office building, hide chocolate coins in desk drawers.
  6. Consider stockpiling some content this week so that you don’t even have to stress out about blog posts going up over the holidays, or invite some guest posters.
  7. If you’re the boss, try not to schedule time-sensitive tasks during this time.
  8. Use the holiday downtime to recharge, and be ready to tackle the beginning of 2013 with gusto!

Next time I go out to eat with my daughter, the iPhone stays off.

And here’s a virtual cup of egg nog, from me to you.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: management, Motivation Tagged With: bc, customer-service, human business, human-centered business, LinkedIn, small business

5 Ways to Increase Efficiency in your Company

December 12, 2012 by Guest Author

by
Robert Cordray

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5 Ways to Increase Efficiency in your Company

In order to reach their goals, some businesses ask their employees to work longer hours. While this is necessary in some cases, you may consider an alternative approach: finding ways to be more efficient with the time you have. Smart work can increase productivity more than hard work. Regardless of your businesses product or service, there are many ways to increase efficiency. Consider the following 5 points:

1. Facilitate Teamwork

More gets done when people work together. Problems are more easily solved through collaboration. Create means by which people can work together. Don’t deprive your employees of human interaction by isolating them in dungeon-like cubicles. While talking too much amongst employees can be a distraction when they get off topic, discussion can also spark ideas.

2. Reduce Travel Time

More time travelling in the car translates into more time sitting in your office. Some travel is necessary, but make sure it’s productive. Instead of travelling to off site meetings or training sessions, consider using technology to communicate. Programs like Skype or Google+ provide formats for individual interviews or group meetings. Stay on top of new technologies and be willing to experiment with them. You may just find yourself with some extra time as a result.

3. Focus on Goals

In the trenches of daily work, employees can loose track of goals over time. Set goals that everyone is committed to. Then remind your employees of those goals periodically. You may even want to display those goals in a place where everyone can see them. Every time you perform a task, look at those goals and ask yourself if it will bring you closer to those goals.

4. Provide Opportunity for Feedback

Customers of your product or service know better than anyone what works well and what doesn’t. Make sure they have an opportunity to voice their opinion. This can be done through a company blog, where you can engage customers directly. Employees also generally have important concerns. Weekly or monthly interviews, depending on the size of your company is one way to learn from them. Another option is an online forum.

5. Keep Employees Happy

When a worker enjoys what they are doing, they will be more productive. There are many ways to improve company happiness. Consider company outings, lunches, or parties. Provide means by which employees can release stress and relax for a moment. While these things may not seem to contribute directly to a company’s goals, they will lead to better work from employees. Time listed these additional reasons why your employees may not be happy.

I remember as a kid being told a story about a fisherman. He played his flute by the ocean, hoping that fish would be lured by his song. When nothing happened, he put down the flute and cast his net into the water. He was amazed when he caught a net full of fish. Don’t be like this fisherman. Take time to discover ways to improve efficiency in your company.

Author’s Bio:
Robert Cordray writes about business, entrepreneurship, and living better at noomii.com. He has acquired over 20 years of entrepreneurship and business consulting. You can find him on Twitter @RobertCordray

Thank you for adding your insight, Robert!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: Business Life, management Tagged With: bc, LinkedIn, small business, small business efficiency, small business productivity

Everything Counts When Building a Professional Brand

December 11, 2012 by Guest Author

by
Deb Bixler

cooltext443809602_strategy

Branding As A Professional

There is a lot of talk about branding. Branding online and off needs to be consistent. That goes without saying!

What about your brand as a professional?

A recent experience drove home to me the importance of my brand as a professional.

I had my business brochures reprinted. An order of a thousand brochures lasts about a year.

When I picked them up and took one out of the box it jumped out at me….

They were folded wrong. A small error of alignment left a white line along the edge of the trifold brochure. The office boy giving me the order could not even see the error when I said that they were folded wrong.

He told me to take a few and then the supervisor would call me with some options. I left feeling like I was being too picky. Over the course of a week or so, I showed the poorly folded brochure to dozens of people.

When I asked “Can you see anything wrong with this brochure?” most would study it with intense scrutiny and then point out something stupid like the color of my shirt or the position of my fingers. After I pointed out the white line, they would say, “That’s no big deal.”

Professionalism in BusinessOnly 1:10 even saw the error without me pointing it out.

After a week or so the printing company called with a settlement offer. Take $70 off the order and keep them as is or do a total reprint free. The order was $250. I was really torn as to what to do.

The printing error really bugged me but no one noticed. I decided to change my terminology in getting opinions.

“This brochure has a printing error. Can you see it?”

My hope was that they would look at the bigger picture and not the details. Same thing… only about 1:10 could actually see it! Everyone I told about the money compensation offer said the same thing: “Take the discount and keep them!”

The Artistic Eye Sees More

I realized that anyone who noticed the fold error was either artistic or in a technology-based business that utilizes graphics on a daily basis.

So I took the brochures to school. I teach culinary school. Chefs are artists!

The first half-dozen aspiring young chefs immediately saw the error. Ahhh…. validation, finally!

One young lady said, “If it bothers you, you should definitely get them reprinted!”

An astute student from my menu design class said: “Isn’t this what you tell us about branding? You always brand yourself as a professional, why would you even consider keeping them!?”

Brand As A Home Business Professional

I provide training for home business consultants. I teach them how to treat their business like a profession. That is the trademark that I operate under.

No matter how small your business when you apply the strategies used by professionals in corporate jobs you will get the same results working from home.

At culinary school I stress maintaining professionalism in the restaurant kitchen…. I briefly forgot to treat my own brand as a professional.

Professionalism is a brand that is carried through out your business, whether it be brochures or online graphics. Never sacrifice your professionalism for money!

I got the reprint and put the rejects in the recycling barrel!

Author’s Bio:
Deb Bixler retired from the corporate world using the proven business systems that made her a success working for others by incorporated them into her home business. In only 9 months Deb replaced her full time income with the sales and commissions from her home party plan business. Find her on Twitter at: http://www.Twitter.com/debbixler

Thank you, Deb!
I would have made the same choice you did.

— ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: management, Marketing /Sales / Social Media Tagged With: bc, LinkedIn, professional branding, quality versus cost, small business

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