Successful Blog

Online Reputation: Fostering Relationships With Influential Bloggers

by

h4> by
Alex Summers

cooltext443809602_strategy

Relationships with the Right Bloggers

A blogger can make or break your business. With a few strokes of a keyboard, a blogger can either catapult your brand into the worldwide realm or sink it into oblivion. Having a relationship with the right blogger is key to keeping your business at the forefront of the positive chatter on the Web.

While many people tout the many benefits of search engine optimization when it comes to Internet marketing, not as much is discussed about managing your online reputation. Monitoring what is said online about your company by bloggers, commenters and forum posters is critical to your business success. All it takes is one negative review from a blogger to send your company’s good name spiraling down the path of no return.

Information moves at the speed of light on the web. By the time an event has aired on network television, the top bloggers have already picked up the story, dissected it, given their personal take on it and opened it up to comments. These bloggers can be your best friends if you manage your resources well and develop a good rapport with the key players in the blogosphere.

Online Reputation: Fostering Relationships With Influential Bloggers

Linking up with the right bloggers is a bit of a challenge. As you can imagine, everyone wants to be friends with the tastemakers of the web. That automatically puts them at an advantage over the myriad of small businesses that want to take advantage of their popularity.

If your business offers a service or product that is complementary to their niche, offer to place their ads on your site for free.

Subscribe to their blogs and add them to your social media sites. The key here is to show them what you can do for them before you ask what they can do for you.

In order to stay in good graces with the bloggers, you must remain a credible resource. Keep your website updated with fresh and relevant content that is useful to your readers. Regularly update your photographs and provide links to related products, services or information. Offer a free e-book or newsletter that your readers will find helpful. Bear in mind that a blogger will only want to endorse your company if you are a genuinely helpful resource.

When you have developed a good working relationship with the key bloggers, work hard to maintain that relationship, even when you’re not looking for favors. By staying in their good graces, you will be in a better position to ask them to endorse your product or service when the time comes.

Sometimes you will receive a bad review on a blog, forum, or consumer website. There may be bad news surrounding your company or personal life. In instances like these, reputation management is key. The first step is to find out what is being said and take steps to mitigate it. If your product is being trashed by a disgruntled customer, handle that customer’s issue before they cause more damage. If it is a competitor, you may have to work harder to erase negative information about your brand online. A good reputation management company can handle these reputation challenges, and their team of experts will work tirelessly to restore your good name on the web.

Most influential bloggers are experts at reputation management — it’s integral to their influence. Most good reputation management companies have great relationships with influential bloggers for that reason.

The relationship between bloggers and businesses is a delicate balancing act of objectivity and loyalty. Your business will benefit greatly from a good working relationship with bloggers who can sing your company’s praises. Foster good relationships with key players and reap the benefits of free advertising. Maintain those relationships and you will find your company’s bottom line grow with each blog post.

How do you foster authentic relationships with influential bloggers?

Author’s Bio:
Alex is a blogger, freelance writer and recent college graduate. She currently performs market research for an online marketing firm when she is not contributing her own thoughts and observations to the online community.

Surprise Yourself

by

Timing Isn’t Everything.

cooltext443794242_influence

They say that

  • opportunity happens when we’re prepared for it.
  • when we’re ready the right teacher appears.
  • Winning isn’t getting ahead of others. It’s getting ahead of yourself.

I say that trying is what happens right before succeeding begins.

Timing isn’t everything.
Knowing our place in time is.

We can stand in the perfect place in time with opportunity right within our reach. How we’ve used our time to prepare, what brought us here, won’t be enough, the outcome will still be affected by how we think. Despite the fact of our top-notch abilities, if we think we’re ready, we’ll take on that chance, if we think we’re not good enough, we’ll let it pass.

Surprise Yourself

Some days, some Mondays, we may be ready for the week to begin. Some days, some Mondays, come with challenges that mean a lot and we wonder whether we’ll win.

Wondering allows those voices and doubts in your head to say things like,

  • you’ll never be able to do that.
  • you’ll never be as good as he is.
  • who are you for thinking you should that?

Don’t wonder.
Dig in and do something about those doubts.

Consider replacing those old voices in your head with a few voices that I’ve heard in the last week or two …

  • You never know until you try.
  • Never underestimate your own value.
  • People could be saying nice things about you.

Refill your positive opinion of you. Remember when you’ve helped someone, answered a question that someone asked or passed on a kind word that was shared with someone who never knew good things were being said about him. Inside those moments you’ll find fuel to face a new challenge or even a plain old Monday again.

Then spend a while doing thinking about how you might do the same things for yourself. People who can cheer themselves, help themselves, and keep themselves are inspiring to be with.

Be inspired!
And don’t be shy about showing it!


Let a sunrise surprise you and inspire you!

Have faith in your ability to surprise yourself.
Surprise yourself with the ways you can make good things happen for you and everyone else.
Believe in what you’ll make, not what you’ll break!
Your subconscious will do the rest.

Every winner believes in winning.
Every leader knows to believe.
Surprise yourself with believing.
It’s irresistible.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Beach Notes: Changing Views

by

by Guest Writers Suzie Cheel and Des Walsh

Most Sunday mornings for the past year we have walked on Fingal Beach and we looked across the water to Cook Island. Today we decided it was time to walk on another beach further south, the beautifully named Dreamtime Beach. What we discovered that we could still see Cook Island but from another perspective.
Habits can be good but sometimes it is also good to break a pattern and see things differently.

How have you changed your view recently?

– Suzie Cheel

Suzie Cheel & Des Walsh

Thanks to Week 358 SOBs

by

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

Earn Money Blogging? Not Unless You Avoid These Pitfalls

by

How to blog series

by
Emily Green

cooltext443809602_strategy

Blogging can make you money but only if you avoid some of the annoying pitfalls that can actually cause you to lose money instead of gaining it. The following are several common and very costly pitfalls that bloggers all over the Internet encounter on a daily basis.

The Time Sucker That is the Internet

The Internet is a minefield filled with numerous distractions. There are social media outlets, games, blogs and search engines that just seemed designed to distract and waste your time. However, if you are looking to make money on your blog you need to avoid these distractions at all costs and apply yourself to networking, writing blog posts, researching and interacting with visitors.

If you are finding it hard to avoid distractions consider some of these time saving methods:

  • Set a timer
  • Block distracting websites
  • Create a schedule and stick to it

Will Write Soon – Losing Contacts

Contacts are everything in the blogosphere. It can often be easy to assume that the contacts that you have made in the blogging world will be there forever, but if you don’t keep in touch you’ll notice that they slowly start to disappear. Avoid losing contacts associated with your blog by devoting a few hours every week to emailing, tweeting and touching base with your numerous contacts and with Android tablets that are designed to keep you online 24/7 there is no reason you can’t keep in touch!

Due Date Delays

Guest blogging or writing blogs for others can be a great way to earn cash, but you have to be willing to stay on a strict schedule. Many of the blogs that welcome you with open arms to guest blog or blog for them have strict schedules they need to keep. When you agree to blog make sure you stick to the deadlines, not only will it help ensure you get paid for your writing but it helps build your reputation within the blogosphere community.

People Pleaser – Catering to the Billions on the Internet

There are billions of individuals on the Internet and as a blogger it is your role to make sure that you don’t offend them. Offending your audience is a sure fire way to send them packing to another blog and cost you money. Remember the more visitors you get the more money you can make! Offending a part of your audience will certainly cost you in the end.

That doesn’t mean you can’t voice your opinion or talk about controversy. No, it just means that you will have to keep comments and blog posts classy and within the limits. And if you do make a risky comment or blog, just remember you risk losing that audience.

Need a little extra cash? Looking for a way to earn money? Grab a computer or a tablet and start blogging. Just remember avoid these four common pitfalls and you’ll be on your way to earning money just for writing and blogging of favorite topics.

Author’s Bio:
Emily Green is a freelance writer and a lover of technology. For work or play, she prefers using an Android tablet . Follow her on Twitter as @emgreen85.

Why Small Business Grants Are the Best Way to Fund a Business

by

by James Crawford

cooltext443809602_strategy

Each year, thousands of government agencies and local organizations hand out billions of dollars in small business grants. Grants come in all shapes and sizes, and are distributed for any number of reasons. There are small business grants for technology, hiring new workers, and even grants for established family businesses. The list goes on and on – if you own a business, thousands of available grant opportunities could fit your business.

Why Small Business Grants Are the Best Way to Fund a Business

Here are some of the reasons why grants are a great way to fund a business:

1. Tax-free capital — Unlike retained earnings, grant payments are tax-free cash that can be used to build upon an existing business. Tax-free capital is the best kind of capital, since a profitable business will pay anywhere from 10-35% of its earnings in taxes — money that can’t be spent on expanding a business.

2. Grants provide networking potential — The best part about grant opportunities is that a grant is usually awarded to several different people and businesses. In accepting a grant, you will have the opportunity to meet other successful business owners who might have an interest in working with your business. As most business owners understand, half the difficulty in running a business is building connections to other business owners and powerful people in the community.

3. No repayment — Grants are free money, period. No capital disbursed through an available grant opportunity has to be repaid. So what you receive from a grant is money that you don’t have to worry about paying back. Many businesses fail because of the stress of debt capital – money raised through bank borrowing that requires frequent monthly payments to service the debt load. Debt tends to be most difficult for smaller businesses that are not yet established, as well as established businesses which have irregular cash flows. Irregularity of income is especially concerning when your expenses are regular, and servicing debt is a burden that will cost your business month after month, year after year.

4. Grants allow for expansion — Sure, some grants will allow you to invest in growing your existing business, but grants can also be used to extend your business into new markets. A printing company, for example, might find a grant which would allow it to hire a graphic designer. In doing so, the company can move into a new market – graphic design – while maintaining its existing business in the printing industry. Think about how you could use capital in your business to make a new product or service that complements an existing business that you have right now.

There is no better way to fund a new or existing business than with a small business grant. Remember that grants are tax-free money that never, ever has to be repaid. And grants are anything but limited – you can find grants for any kind of business in any size.

Start searching for a business grant by reaching out to local business development organizations! Between incubators, free resources like SCORE (http://www.score.org/), online directories, and government agencies like the Small Business Administration (http://www.sba.gov/), there is no shortage of ways to discover free and available funding for your business right now.

Author’s Bio:
James Crawlord writes about business financing, especially about small business grants at Grantstar.org. You can find him on Twitter as @jamescrawlord .