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LinkedIn Headline Help

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LinkedIn is a powerful tool for marketing, networking, and self-promotion. People looking for your type of business will need to be able to find you, so it’s important that your profile page contains important keywords, looks professional, and is easily accessible. This post by Melonie Dorado at Top Dog Social Media has several tips on how to maked your Linked In profile work for you:

-Make sure your headline stands out in search results– make it click-worthy!

-Make sure it includes keywords that you want to be found for

-Include an attention grabbing statement of the benefits that you offer your client

-Use all available characters!

Photo Credit: Sheila Scarborough

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How to Run a Giveaway on Your Blog

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Giveaways are a great way to attract more traffic to your site. If you run a blog with a theme, like parenting, crafts, or hobbies, thinking of a prize (kids products, tools, art supplies) is a breeze (and probably in high demand!). If you blog to promote your personal business, a giveaway is a surefire way to get people interested in your product or brand– and keep them coming back for more. It’s also a way to bolster relationships between you and your readers, or with other brands. This post by Anna at In The Next 30 Days is a great guide on how to host your first giveaway:

Think carefully about the prize. Make it something YOU like, and that your audience will find valuable.

Decide how you’ll get your prize. Ask a company to donate or buy it yourself!

Write an awesome giveaway post. 

Make it simple to enter. 

Promote, promote, promote

Pick your winner randomly, and announce it.

Follow up with your winner. Make sure they received their prize in a timely manner, especially if it was shipped by an outside company

Photo Credit: Liz Marie AK 

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Blog Archives How-To

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Organizing your blog and making archives accessible is a great way to make sure readers keep coming back. After all, if you’re on a site that’s hard to navigate, and makes it impossible for you to find what you’re looking for, how likely are you to stay on it? Not very. Keeping it organized and up to date will benefit both you and your readers. This post by Gretchen Louise will help walk you through the process:

Identify & Optimize Top 20 Posts- these are what gets you hits, and what people want to see.

Highlight Popular Posts on a Favorites or “Start Here” Page- these are what get you new viewers.

Sift Archives for Irrelevant, Outdated Posts- delete things that are duplicates, or simply not your best work.

Photo Credit: Enoch Filho 

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Blog burnout? Get Inspired!

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Whew! 2013 is coming to an end. If you’ve been blogging for ages now, or if you just started this year, the end of the year can seem like both a relief, but also a challenge. The past year is over, but the next one is going to demand all new content, concentration, and creativity. So, once you get done with your winter break (even if it’s just a day off or two for the holidays), get ready. The new year is coming, waiting for you to tackle it with sparkling new ideas and posts. If you’re feeling a little stuck or intimidated, this post by Jennine Jacob at heartifb will motivate you! Check out some tips to help you get excited about your blog, just in time for 2014:

Brainstorm your posts for the week on real  paper For some reason it feels more like it’s coming from the soul. It’s private. It’s destructible. It’s unique. Also, you can’t get distracted by email and social media when your computer is closed and all that is open is your pad of paper.

Give your blog’s design a make-over Kind of like getting a new pair of shoes or a lipstick. Maybe your site just needs a bit of a makeover. Give your site a new lipstick by updating your header, or picking out a new font for your post text. 

Bring on a contributor It’s amazing how contributors can help add a new perspective to your blog. 

Ask yourself, “Why did I start in the first place?” You started blogging for a reason. We all did. Whatever that reason was, it was compelling enough for you to create something. Maybe, just maybe, it will compel you to create some more.

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Zeldman 

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Blogging Productivity Tip: Make Lists

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A few days ago, I wrote about how to be more productive when having kids around the house. Those tips are applicable to anyone working from home. Today, I have some advice for those of you who are specifically bloggers. While working from home in general can be distracting, blogging comes with the added unproductive bonus of writers block. It’s hard to generate new content every day! Well, by setting goals and staying on top of them, you can increase your blog productivity in just a few hours. Just check out this post by Alice at Mums Make Lists for advice:

-Create a Routine of Must Dos

-Write down daily must dos e.g. pinning, link parties

-Identify time sinks that only need doing weekly, monthly or less e.g. check stats

-Don’t forget dull stuff like backing up your blog

-Write up on one page as daily, weekly & monthly must dos

-Allocate a day to each weekly activity and a week to each monthly activity 

-Justify Your Time!

-Work out your maximum justifiable blogging time.

-Decide minimum time you can spend on must dos & still get them done

-The time you’ve got left is the time you’ve got for blog posts & enhancements

Photo Credit: Josef Stuefer 

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Blog Marketing Help

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Marketing yourself can always be daunting. If you’re just starting out in the job market, describing yourself in job interviews and resumes is difficult if you aren’t sure how to “sell” yourself. Online, it can be just as hard if you are either squeamish or just don’t know where to start. Well, the key to get your name out there is repeated self promotion. Melissa at momcomm has some awesome blog marketing tips:

People need to see or hear your message seven times to take action.

people need to repeatedly hear your message.For that reason alone, throw a farewell party for your self-promotion squeamishness.

Promote a new post (more than once)- Put it on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest at different times throughout the day.

Promote an older post at appropriate times.

Remind your readers about giveaways or other offers

Make self promotion a habit!

Photo Credit: Rainer Stropek 

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How to Make Your Blog Sparkle

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Many work-from-home professionals run or write for a blog. Sometimes, it can be hard thinking of new content every day, or finding interesting stories to show people. It can be easy to let your blog slip into dullness, repetition, or unoriginality, but that’s how you lose readers (and potential clients/customers)! Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to perk up your blog and make it shine. Crissy at DearCrissy has a few tips:

Make yourself known– Are you showing your readers who you really are? My favorite blogs are authored by people who aren’t afraid to put their personality front and center in their posts. 

Beautify your blog — Yes, design is important

 Highlight your strengths — What are your strengths, and what makes your blog special? Isolate the topics or skills where you excel, and run with them. If food is your thing, pour your energy into crafting incredible recipe posts.  Be confident and be fearless!

Photo Credit: Pranav 

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How to Add a “Pin It” Button to Your Website or Blog

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I’ll be the first to admit it: I am addicted to Pinterest. If you’re not sure what it is, go check it out. Pinterest is an online pin board where you can organize all your favorite images and links. It’s fun, it’s addictive, and it’s chock full of information and inspiration. It’s also a wonderful tool for self promotion! Half of the blogs that I follow, I found through Pinterest. And if you work from home and have a website, having a Pinterest can be a great way to get your name out there. It’s a great tool for bloggers, real estate agents, independent entrepreneurs, or anyone else who is self employed. With over 70 million current users and 2.5 billion monthly pageviews, it’s a no brainer. Julie at Julie Ann Art has made this wonderful guide on how to add a Pin It button to your posts. Be sure to check it out! It’s for Blogger, but it’s equally easy to add it to a WordPress or any other post.

Photo Credit: MKH Marketing 

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