What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on these ideas and join the conversation...
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, marketing professional services, professional services marketing, blogging for business, marketing expert, professional speaker marketing, marketing strategist, marketing consultant, small business marketing, marketing for authors, blogging 101, doit marketing, do it marketing, doitmarketing, content marketing, small business marketing coach
Does your dog blog?
Yes? No? Not sure?
Well, don't worry because mine does.
You're about to get 10 blogging lessons from my black Labrador retriever, Woofie, who turns 10 soon. (FYI her birthday is April 29 and she loves getting birthday notes by email. And she replies to every one!)
What makes Woofie such an authority on blogging? Well, it's simple really - she gets a TON of traffic. Every month, I get emails from GoDaddy, where her website is hosted, to the effect that her website bandwidth (5GB/month) has been exceeded. Sometimes by a factor of two or three!
Put simply: there's a chance that this dog's blog is more popular than yours.
So to help you fix that, here are Woofie's guidelines for blogging.
Grab your FREE copy of the Social Media Traffic Boost Cheat Sheet!
And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.
Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!
Tags: marketing speaker, thought leadership marketing, word of mouth marketing, web marketing, marketing professional services, blog, trusted advisor marketing, blogging for business, marketing coach, marketing strategist, blogging 101, doit marketing, do it marketing, doitmarketing, content marketing, marketing tips
You'll remember from the introduction to this Business Blogging 101 series, I mentioned the three BIG problems keeping you from doing a better job of leveraging blogging into business:
1. You are unable to write QUICKLY.
2. You are unwilling to write BRIEFLY.
3. You are inefficient at IDEA CAPTURE.
Good news for you - #3 is the final topic we'll tackle today and you'll become an idea capture ninja before you're done reading this post...
1. Set up a blog idea file in your email account. I filter everything through Yahoo! Mail and here's a shot of my "Blog - Best of the Web (BOW)" folder that sees a lot of action every single day. Drag, drop, captured!!
2. Use the Notes feature on your smartphone. I'm an iPhone guy myself but here's the idea that will work on any smartphone or tablet device...
3. Use a task manager on your computer, phone or tablet - handy for portability across all devices you use - and make a TO DO entry called "Blog fodder." Here is what mine looks like on the terrific to-do/task manager called Wunderlist:
4. Carry a notebook and pen. Everywhere. All the time. Yep, seriously. Pictured below is one of my favorites - the Dot Grid Journal from The Creatives Outfitter.
5. Keep a trusty pad by your bed. In the nightstand, on the nightstand, under your pillow, doesn't matter - but late at night, early in the morning and sometimes at 3am is when you WILL get your best ideas. And if you don't write them down, they are gone, baby, gone... I like these "NOTE TO SELF" pads from http://www.knockknockstuff.com:
6. Carry a pocket video camera. Sure, you have your phone. But if you want HD video, external mic capability, and some special features, why not keep one of these in your briefcase like I do? See a celebrity at a conference? Three-minute video interview - BOOM! See something amazing on the street or while traveling that's worthy of a video blog? Two-minute video blog - BAM! Lots and lots of ways you'll be able capture ideas with this little guy. I own this Kodak Playtouch which runs less than $90 and shoots in 1080HD. Awesome...
7. Use micro-notes. In addition to my main notebook you see pictured above, I also keep an "Action Cahier" which is a much smaller notebook. You can throw one of these in your car, one in your bag, and keep one around the office for jotting quick blog ideas, questions, brain blurbs, blog titles, subject lines, all sorts of random and useful idea-starters. If one of these is always nearby, your next brilliant idea doesn't stand a chance of escape!
Tags: business blogging, blogging 101, marketing speaker, marketing coach
Grab your FREE copy of the Social Media Traffic Boost Cheat Sheet!
And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.
Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, thought leadership marketing, professional services marketing, blog, trusted advisor marketing, blogging for business, marketing expert, marketing coach, marketing strategist, speaker marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, blogging 101
Guest post by Janet Aronica
Creating consistent and helpful blog content is a great way to build community and trust around your brand for your prospects.
It's how you draw the right potential customers to your website.
But cranking out daily content is challenging.
How can you keep the blog post ideas flowing? How can you keep the content fresh and prevent yourself from re-hashing the same old thing?
Here’s a brainstorm of some ideas to get you started, or just keep you going...
1. Do a screencast with Screenr of your product and share it on your blog.
2. Show a step-by-step guide on how to do something in a screencast, how-to video, or show the steps in a series of photos.
3. Create a music video for your company and post it on the blog.
4. Share a cartoon or create an original one.
5. Write a how-to article. Give instructions with screenshots or photos on the steps someone needs to take to do something.
6. Point out common mistakes in your industry and offer solutions on how to fix or avoid them.
7. Offer a list of benefits for doing something.
8. Share a list of some things to avoid.
9. Relate your how-to content to a current event or a celebrity. Example: “Five _____ Lessons from Lady Gaga” or “What the Election Teaches Us About ____”
10. Take the contrarian position – Find someone else’s article that you agree or disagree with. Introduce your blog post with what you specifically agree or disagree with it, and support your argument with a few concise points.
11. Do a weekly or daily links-roundup of relevant news for your community.
12. Find tips in other content, create a list of those tips and give links to those articles as the sources.
13. Share an excerpt from an ebook or white paper with a call to action to download it for the rest of the information.
14. Share an excerpt from an upcoming webinar with a call to action to get the rest of the content in the webinar.
15. Share your slides from a recent presentation.
16. Share conference takeaways.
17. Do a round-up of last year’s/last month’s/last week’s most popular posts.
18. Re-interpret existing content: Collect the top motivational YouTube videos for your audience, top ebooks, top webinars or infographics.
19. Create a Slideshare presentation of new statistics related to your space and share that in a blog post. Tag the Slideshare presentation with relevant keywords for your company to leverage SEO benefits of the platform.
20. Ask a question on Twitter and share the results with a Storify embed.
21. Collect Tweets from a webinar or conference hashtag, show them off with Paper.li (as recommended by FitSmallBusiness.com) and offer your own takeaways in the blog post.
22. Respond to industry research with your own perspective. Offer a fresh angle to spark conversation.
23. Do a survey with Survey Monkey among your community members and create an infographic based on the results.
24. Do a poll of your Twitter community with a Twtpoll or your Facebook community with a Facebook Question and post the results on your blog.
25. Do an in-depth case study about one company, or offer a few examples of how other companies do something successfully.
26. Record an interview with an expert in your field and post it to your blog.
27. Get experts to offer a tip and do a round-up of their recommendations.
28. Feature guest posts from industry experts.
29. Publish responses to frequently asked questions about your industry.
30. Create a list of trends to watch.
31. Compare and contrast: Different products, different approaches, different companies, different people, different places, etc.
32. Do a review of other non-competitive products or services that your community cares about.
33. Be a journalist: Be the first in your space to offer industry takeaways about breaking news.
34. Explain what a current event or topic in the news means for your industry or community. Example: “What ____ Means for ____.” “Why _____ Matters for _____.”
35. De-bunk common myths.
36. Interview your favorite customer.
36. Post a Flickr slideshow of pictures from a recent event.
37. Run a contest and give away something relevant to your community.
38. Ask for guest posts from community members.
39. If you have company news to share, talk about it in a way that makes it about the reader. Example: If someone gets promoted, talk about how why were successful. Inspire your audience.
40. Publish a post relevant to the current season or holiday.
41. Outline the top practical use cases for your product, service etc.
Originally posted by our partners at Hubspot on the HubSpot Inbound Marketing Blog.
What do you think? How do YOU generate ideas for your blog? Use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, questions or opinions...
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, thought leadership marketing, web marketing, marketing professional services, blog, trusted advisor marketing, blogging for business, marketing expert, writing, professional speaker marketing, marketing coach, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, blogging 101, social media marketing, business blogging, marketing tips, public speaker marketing
You'll remember from yesterday's introduction to this Business Blogging 101 series, I mentioned the three BIG problems keeping you from doing a better job of leveraging blogging into business:
1. You are unable to write QUICKLY.
2. You are unwilling to write BRIEFLY.
3. You are inefficient at IDEA CAPTURE.
Good news for you - #1 and #2 are related and we'll solve them both for you before you're done reading this post...
Grab your FREE copy of the Social Media Traffic Boost Cheat Sheet!
And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.
Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!
Tags: marketing speaker, marketing success, thought leadership marketing, web marketing, blog, trusted advisor marketing, blogging for business, marketing expert, marketing professional services firms, writing, marketing ideas, marketing coach, marketing consultant, marketing for authors, blogging 101, doit marketing, do it marketing, doitmarketing, business blogging, marketing tips
As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I've noticed that my clients and audiences are always fascinated by the topic of business blogging - specifically blog writing.
This week, we'll dig into Business Blogging 101 and you'll master the basics of business blogging. So stay tuned and please DO use the COMMENTS area of the blog to share your own blogging advice, insights and recommendations.
Let's dig in...
Simple, really:
1. You are unable to write QUICKLY.
2. You are unwilling to write BRIEFLY.
3. You are inefficient at IDEA CAPTURE.
Notice I didn't include the two biggies that YOU probably think are YOUR problem - 'cuz they're not. These are...
1. Inability to write. (That's a convenient BS lie/excuse)
2. Not having ideas. (That's another convenient - and bigger - BS lie/excuse!)
We'll address all of these business blogging challenges and more in this week's posts. So stay tuned for more Business Blogging 101...
Grab your FREE copy of the Platform Promotion Checklist!
Please use the COMMENTS area below to share YOUR biggest questions, stumbling blocks, or burning issues when it comes to blogging for your business...
Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, marketing strategy, marketing success, thought leadership marketing, social media, marketing professional services, trusted advisor marketing, blogging for business, marketing ideas, marketing strategist, motivational speaker marketing, marketing for authors, blogging 101, marketing tip, social media marketing, business blogging
