Successful Blog

Show your Authenticity; Monkey with your Business

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Rosemary O’Neill

“True authenticity is a lack of perfection,” said architect Gil Schafer in the June 2012 issue of Architectural Digest. He was referring to a beautifully designed home, but the same principle applies to the beautifully run business.

The architect mentions, in the same interview, that he loves to include accents that are off-kilter, or “monkeyed with.”
Yes! I say. Exactly.

Show Your Authenticity. Humans Aren’t Perfect

Should a small business owner try to emulate the stilted language of a Fortune 500 on their website? Should an entrepreneur build a carefully crafted facade of social media perfection? No. Humans aren’t wired that way, and we have a hard time relating to businesses that are wired that way.

That doesn’t mean you can ignore the importance of copywriting, or that you can abandon business niceties altogether, and it certainly doesn’t mean you can show up at a presentation in your PJs.

But as a small business owner, you have a golden opportunity to show your human side, to be authentically you, as you conduct business. There’s no 50 page guidance document holding you back. If you screw something up royally, just apologize.

Embrace your lack of perfection. Celebrate it!

How to Be Off-Kilter On Purpose

Some inspirational ideas:

  1. I recently ordered some iPhone lenses that came with a tiny plastic dinosaur in the box, for no apparent reason. Photojojo.com made me smile.
  2. The AppSumo site has a funny, sometimes bizarre sense of humor, and a readily distinguishable “voice.”
  3. A local Seattle promo design shop (the fun folks at B-Bam!) caught my undivided attention last month by sending me a Christopher Walken t-shirt out of the blue.

Are you striving for B-school perfection? Stop it, and release the monkeys! Your customers will thank you for it.

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

Five Ways Traveling Can Help Entrepreneurs

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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

Most entrepreneurs, especially those who are in the early stages of their careers, consider traveling to be a luxury, mainly because traveling is often considered a synonymous to vacations, which is essentially “some time away from your work”. So, a big majority of entrepreneurs or businessmen will down-rightly reject the notion of traveling, because they consider it a waste of time and extravagance, little do they know that a simple trip can do wonders to both themselves and their businesses. Remember that when we talk of a trip, we are not really talking about a night out with your friends, dining at a restaurant or roaming around in a mall, we are talking about traveling to a new faraway destination and exploring a new place, a new city, or even a country. If you are one of those entrepreneurs who think that they can hold off traveling and vacations till they have made it big, and accumulated enough fortune to call it a day, then you are missing on some great learning experiences, and the less you learn, the less you will earn.

Keep on reading to know the five most important benefits of traveling for entrepreneurs and businessman.

Breaking out of the grind:

There comes a point in the lives of professionals and businessmen, when life becomes utterly monotonous, and you may find yourself stuck in the whirlpool of daily chores that you need to do in order to survive. You desperately feel the need of breaking the shackles, but you cannot change your job, business, or go away from your friends or family members just for the sake of change. The good news is, you don’t need such drastic steps in order to break out from the grind, all you need is to pack your bags and take a trip, just make sure you don’t choose another metropolitan as your destination (because the hustle and bustle will make it difficult to break free).

Ideas and Inspiration:

One of the worst consequences of getting caught in the daily routine is, you are discouraging your mind from thinking out of the box, and that is something an entrepreneur can’t afford to do, because the ability to innovate is what distinguishes an entrepreneur from a typical businessman who does nothing but copy. Traveling to new places, exploring new cultures and lifestyles, and breathing new air, will equip you with lots and lots of inspirations and new ideas to work on, with a restored vigor serving as the icing on the cake, because you can use it to turn those ideas into realities.

Explore New Horizons:

This one is a no brainer … traveling will take you to new places, and if you are a true entrepreneur, there’s every chance that you will see a business opportunity lying somewhere to be taken. This is much better than trying to search for newer markets or new prospects over the Internet. Remember that real opportunities exist in real world and not the cyber world, and it takes a lot more than googling to find them.

Partnerships:

Even if you are not planning to expand your business to other locations anytime soon, there’s every chance that you will stumble across a new and better supplier of a material that you need for your existing business, or you might also find new opportunities to partner up with a business for mutual benefits, especially if you can plan your trip around an event or trade show taking place at another city or country.

De-stress:

Everything around us is turning into a potential stress factor, you can read those self-development books, listen to soothing melodies, spend your nights watching block buster movies or sitcoms for all you want, but there are times when these things start contributing to your stress rather than helping you to loosen up, in fact they become the part of the grind that we were talking about. A stressed mind will lead to negative thinking, and that directly impacts our productivity in a negative way. Therefore, when you are finding it hard to unwind or to let it go, it’s time that you leave everything behind and go out on a short voyage. Rest assured, you will be returning with a re-energized mind, body, and if you are lucky enough, a rejuvenated soul.

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Rahil is an entrepreneur and frequent traveler. If you are looking for some top notch group travel arrangements, you can try Release Travel, a stag and hen company based in United Kingdom, offering all kinds of customized travel arrangements like Hen Weekends, Stag Weekends, or Activity Weekends.

Is Your Business Connected to the Right Web Host Provider?

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As a small business owner, having a sizable and sound presence on the Internet can be the difference between an average business and one that is going places.

In order to achieve such a presence, however, one needs to have put together a solid Web site that is free of gaffes, easy to navigate, and offers the consumer something.

Finding the right web hosting provider is not always the easiest thing to do, given you yourself may not be very adept at what you need. If that is the case, even more time and research should be taken so that your choice does not leave you and your Web site down.

When searching for a web hosting provider, keep the following in mind so that you do not go blindly into the search:

* Know the needed capacity – The percentage of storage capacity your business requires will depend on what kind of site you are putting together. If you are constructing an article directory where your required web space will increase rapidly, decide how much the expense will grow for such needs;
* Understand the required bandwidth – Another key factor is to determine what amount of bandwidth your site will most likely need, especially if you figure on providing the public with things like audio, podcasts, streaming video etc. over time;
* Know if you will face a setup fee – As competition among web hosting providers heats up, that should mean savings for your business. That being said, if a web host provider notes it will be charging you a setup charge for its services, shop around;
* Understand the provider’s thoughts on tech support – The idea should always be to locate a hosting provider that is at your service on a 24-hour basis. Given that server issues occur at all hours of the day, don’t settle on a service provider that can’t meet your potential service needs;
* Check out the company’s history – Lastly, do a background check on the service providers you are looking into working with. See if there is any track record of complaints, if their company proves to be financially solvent, and if they have a history of quality service. Issues in any of these three areas should serve as a red flag.

When it comes to finding the right web host provider for your small business, don’t be left disconnected.

Photo credit: http://www.etamhost.com/tag/web-hosting-provider/

Dave Thomas has more than 20 years’ experience as a writer, covering marketing, SEO, press releases, social media and more. You’ll find Dave at BeeMoreSocial

 

How to Write Powerful Content that Powerfully Connects

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How to blog series

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Chris Nosal

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How To Write Powerful Content

Being able to connect with your customers is one of the most important skills you could possibly learn in both blogging and in business, because your ability to connect with your customers is what translates into dollars, keeps your business running, and adds value to your customers’ lives.

In this blog post I want to detail some simple and easy but very powerful tricks that you can use to really connect with your readers and customers.

How to Really Connect with Readers

Basically, I’m going to show you some psychological “hacks” that you can use to capture people’s attention, and literally captivate them with every word you write (or say).

If you’ve ever watched Steve Jobs give a presentation (such as his presentation on the iPhone in 2007), you’ll notice he does one thing that 99% of speakers don’t:

He does’t start by focusing on how powerful the phone is, how fast the processor is, or how it’s different from all the other phones.

He starts by talking about how it is something revolutionary that is going to completely transform and revolutionize the way we (as humans) live our lives forever, and the incredible changes that are going to take place, for the first time in history, in our lives as a result of this groundbreaking discovery.

Now, which is more exciting:

A new electronic phone … or something that is going to change the way every person on the planet lives their lives forever for the first time in history?

Can you guess why people were lining up by the millions to get the iPhone yet, while no other company has ever had such a response to their products?

This same formula worked time and time again for the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad; with people obsessively lining up by the millions sitting out in the cold for 14+ hours just to get their hands on one.

Which leads me to my next question:

What did Steve Jobs do here that was so powerful?

Going back to the iPhone example, Steve knew that people didn’t want just a phone; they wanted a story to emotionally connect with their phone.

The idea was that by buying an iPhone, you’d be among the first to experience something revolutionary and new that is going to transform your life like never before.

You weren’t just buying a piece of plastic that could make calls and manage your daily activities — you were buying something that was going to change your life, and change the world, and you were part of a revolution that was changing the world.

This is so powerful because, on a mental level, humans don’t connect with logic.

We want to FEEL like we’re a part of something; like what we’re doing has a purpose.

How to Write Powerful Content that Powerfully Connects

So, now that we’ve covered the basics, how do you personally apply this information (and this formula) to write blog posts that really pull your readers in, and literally compel them to read everything you write?

While there’s a lot of information on this topic, I’m going to break down the main points here in to a very simple formula that you can instantly use to skyrocket your results in just two simple steps — and here they are:

Use Visuals

If I use vague, bland, abstract words like communication, potential, integrity, or commitment, how do you feel? Now, how do you feel when I use words like ice cream sundae, swimming pool, or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup?

Did you notice what I did there?

The second list of words creates a FEELING, and activates your imagination through mental pictures already associated with those words. Use imagery like that and you’ll move just talking to communication where your reader is actively involved and participating in what you say.

Create A Story

If I mention a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, you’ll notice you get a picture of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in your head, as well as the emotional experience that goes along with the image; I’ve just completely gotten your focus on what I’m talking about, and I’ve captured your attention using your emotions.

Now, let’s make this ten times more powerful by adding a story to this image

If I say, “I was sitting at home after a long day of driving, and as I sat at my kitchen table I wrapped my hands around the wrapper of a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup. As I slid the wrapper open, and slowly slid the chocolate out, I began to put it in my mouth, and then proceeded to softly chew on it as the peanut butter flavor soaked up in my mouth.”

Now how does that compare to just say or writing, “I ate food yesterday”?

With the second option, you’re just reading text on a page.

But the first example takes a vague piece of text and brings it to life by getting your emotions and your imagination involved, and holds your attention and focus on exactly what I’m talking about.

Even more powerfully, what I did in the first example actually built an emotional connection with the reader.

The Keys To A Powerful Blog Post

The most important thing about your writing is that it captures people’s attention on an emotional level, and that your writing really connects with them at a one-on-one level. Do this by connecting a clear and specific mental image with a story that emotional involves your audience.

The best part is that it takes practically no effort to make these simple but very powerful changes as you’re writing. And the more you apply these techniques to your writing, the better you’ll to become at communicating and connecting with people.

What sort of content powerfully connects with you?

Author’s Bio:
Chris Nosal writes about social skills and communication mastery at popularitysecrets.com. He is the author of Popularity Secrets, and also does personal coaching and consulting.

Don’t Build Your Business Castle on Another Guy’s Land

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How to blog series

Content Is King

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When building an online presence for a business, people quickly think of a website, social networks like Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and Google+ — all of which, when put together, can seem overwhelming. Add in a blog to the mix and often people will flinch. It’s reasonable that growth-focused businesses might worry about the commitment and time that a blog could represent.

Still, whenever I’m invited to help a business connect to their customers and grow their community, a blog is always central to the content strategy. Content attracts, informs, demonstrates, and establishes value. There’s a reason online professionals say, “Content is king.”

Don’t Build Your Business Castle on Another Guy’s Land

All of the social sites might seem to replace the role of a blog. Twitter allows us to connect, converse, reconnect, faster and easier. Facebook and Google+ allow us to be social with our customers. LinkedIn is the Chamber of Commerce online. Instagram and Pinterest give us a chance to share what we see and like.

But if you want to the search engines working for you, a blog is a cornerstone to reaching those goals.

Have you read the terms of service on those social sites where you’re putting your advice, your expertise, your unique content? Would you keep your address book, your contact lists, your communication records inside another guy’s business?

It’s hard to have a true presence, if everything you say is on social sites. How to people know which place you call home? Where do you put your serious thoughts? What home holds your business body of work?

Your business blog content is the cornerstone of your business online. Well thought and well presented content is easiest, fastest, and most meaningful way to share your expertise. Helpful (not hypeful) insights, how-tos, and information that’s relevant to your customer’s lives is an invitation to get to know your business beliefs, values, and business sense. Content like that attracts people you want to work with, and give search engines valuable pages to index. Those indexed pages advertise you whenever people search for the solutions you write.

Don’t put something as valuable and attractive as content on another guy’s url.

If you’re going to build and share online content, own the url where you house it. Instead of writing a post on a social site write it on your business blog. Share the link and an excerpt on that social site instead. Keep the original content on your own URL – where Google and your visitors can connect it to your business.

Let the traffic and the authorship come to you.

Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and the rest make it easy to build groups and share content quickly. But what are we risking by building a following in places where we don’t own the “land”? The social site “landowner” is gaining benefit of every customer you attract. If you decide to leave, you might lose your whole list.

Who can trust that the social site sill never change the “rules”? Are you willing to risk your business on that?

Free isn’t free when you think about it.
Go visit instead and invite folks back to where you’ve build a location that looks, feels, and interact with them in a way that only your own property can. Content is king. Don’t build your castle on another guy’s land. You might find that you can’t get to the castle one day.

How would your business be affected if Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or Google+ lost the content and connections you’ve built?

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

What Makes a Link-Worthy Blog?

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Tara Hornor

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What Does Link-Worthy Mean?

When creating a blog, it is essential for the content on the blog to be link-worthy. What does link-worthy even mean? It’s a standard you should consider for every single post — link-worthy means that your content is good enough that site visitors would want to bookmark your page, share with friends, or use as a reference piece on their own blog. It means that your blog will build a great amount of backlinks, and thereby increase its visibility online. When people link to you, your site receives many benefits from added social credibility to search engine boosts and more.

To ensure that your blog and its content are linkable, focus on writing about topics that truly interest you as well as your visitors. Some people dive right in to creating a blog without focus and then end up short of the success they hoped for because they were not fully dedicated to a specific topic or niche.

Key to Link-Worthiness: Passion

Starting with a topic you’re passionate about will help you to keep your blog up-to-date with quality content — content to which others will create backlinks. If you love a topic or know a whole lot more information than other people know, use that to your benefit and write about the topics you love and know best. In doing so, you are teaching what you know and sharing your passion about it. Offer content that is informative and useful that connects your passion to others, and people will be linking to you.

So make sure you love what you write about first and foremost. This will drive the rest of the content generation and energy behind your blog. When you’re excited about a topic, you’ll go the extra mile to make the post amazing.

Always before you hit “Publish,” ask yourself, “Is this the kind of resource that I would want to revisit?” If not, what’s missing? What extra bit of information would take it over the top? Now go add it to your post!

Setting Your Blog Up for Success

When your blog is set up in a professional manner, you are more likely to have success. The following is a list of a few aspects you need to consider:

  • Choose a domain name for your blog that is professional, catchy, and easy to remember.
  • Choose a blog layout or template that matches up with the content and is visually appealing.
  • Offer only original content on your blog. nIf you quote someone be sure to link to their work.
  • Write with a friendly and conversational vioce because that is what people tend to look for.

Promoting Your Link-Worthy Blog

Other people are the most important part of helping you build a blog that is linkable. Many well-established blogs already have strong readership. Owners of these popular blogs know to look around to see what other bloggers have been saying about them. If you are write about them and link to their work, you can easily get noticed by these bloggers and sometimes in return, they may link to you. This means more success for you because links from established bloggers often carry more google juice which can raise your visibility and help you to become more established too.

Guest blogging is also an ideal way of building a link-worthy blog. As a blogger, you can offer to guest blog on other well-established blogs and instead of being paid, you can ask that the blogger link to you. That link back will ultimately help you establish credibility with search engines and increase traffic to your blog. With more traffic, you will find people who are following your blog on a daily basis because they are so interested in what you have to say.

So how do you make sure that your blogs are link-worthy?
Do you have a specific set of ideal pieces of content you always try to provide?

Author’s Bio:
Tara Hornor writes about marketing, advertising, branding, web and graphic design, and desktop publishing for PrintPlace.com a company that offers online printing for print marketing media. Find her on Twitter as @TaraHornor .