by Kathy on April 10, 2008
Monk at Work by Adam Kayce is truly a SHINING EXAMPLE of a blog that does an EXCEPTIONAL job of “connecting” with readers.
There’s a nice little box in the sidebar that expresses quite eloquently Adam’s services:
- Unclear on your purpose?
- Not working at your potential?
- Trouble expressing yourself?
- Personal issues getting in the way of your work?
However, you don’t need to read the box to “get” what it is Adam is offering.
Adam has brilliantly branded himself and extends that branding through his blog’s name (Monk at work) to his offerings (White Papers are called Monkifestos”… CUTE!!!)
However, what makes this truly a shining example is, even without the “branding elements” in place, his brand comes through quite clearly through his writing. So even if you were presented with his content in a plain text ASCII file, you’d still “see” his brand.
Adam has done a LOT of work on this blog and it shows. It’s truly a shining example of how a blog can act as a powerful marketing tool.
by Kathy on April 8, 2008
This is truly inspired way of promoting a blog!!
The Search Engine Journal has announced that they’re launching a guest blog contest.
The contest means everybody wins. The Search Engine Journal gets submissions of the best bloggers have to offer. Bloggers get additional exposure for their blogs. The winner will be chosen by a multi-tier process looking at social media voting, reader voting, traffic of the individual posts and links to the posts.
The contest, which offers $9,000 in prizes, will help to build and promote the Search Engine Journal’s blog on many levels.
- INCOMING LINK BONANZA: Winners will be determined in part by the number of incoming links to the blog. Bloggers who submit articles will be encouraged to create incoming links from not only their blogs, but they’ll also encourage their blogging “buddies” to create links as well. Search Engine Journal wins with an incoming link frenzy.
- QUALITY CONTENT BONANZA: Bloggers are going to submit their best work which will live forever on the Search Engine Journal blog…. again, content which is generating LOTS of incoming links.
Bloggers who submit work will benefit as well.
- Bloggers get exposure of their expertise to readers of the Search Engine Journal blog.
- Bloggers gain exposure for their company or blog. Search Engine Journal will add a bi-line an linnk at the bottom of the post.
- Bloggers gain long term benefits as the post will be indexed in search engines and housed on the Search Engine Journal authority site.
- Bloggers gain exposure to the Search Engine Journal’s RSS subscriber base of 15,000+
- All Entrants Will Receive a $100 VIP Coupon for SponsoredReviews.com!
All in all, it’s a GREAT opportunity to gain additional exposure for your blog. While it’s probably going to do the most good for those who want to speak to the “search engine specialist” audience, they’ve opened the contest up to everyone on any topic.
Read more about it here: SEJ Guest Blogging Competition : Win Over $9,000 in Search Marketing Prizes
by Kathy on April 7, 2008
Time management is coming up a lot for me lately. It’s coming up for me and it’s coming up for my clients as well.
Bruce Mohl explores this topic in depth in his article at the Boston Globe entitled: What’s worth more, your money or your time?
Philosophical considerations enter in. Some time-value calculators say a person’s leisure time has the same value as their hourly salary, or even less. Others say leisure time is far more valuable than work time, as much as two to three times hourly pay.
My favorite words of wisdom are related to the time vs money valuation. If anyone knows the origins of this rough quote, let me know and I’ll give credit where credit is due.
In essence, the words of wisdom are as follows:
You either have a surplus of time or a surplus of money. If you find yourself deficient in both, then you’re spending one or the other in the wrong place.
Those words of wisdom literally changed my life because when I was confronted by them, I had to take a good hard look at my own situation. See, I was deficient in time AND money at that point in time. In essence, I didn’t value myself or my time. What’s really wild is the more I valued myself, the more value others assigned to me.
Ahmed Bilal writes in Value Yourself
Get on the right track and stay on it. Value yourself and your time - not only where others are concerned but where you yourself are concerned. Where are you spending most of your time? Why? How does this help you do what you want in life? It doesn’t? Then why are you doing it?
Wow!! Talk about getting to the heart of the matter.
Ahmed also writes over at the Performancing blog and there he gives 10 Simple Rule for Online Success where he admonishes the reader to stop whining and start channeling his/her energies.
No one is better at helping you to channel your energies than Zen Habits. 18 Five-Minute Decluttering Tips illustrates the incredible power of harnessing such a small segment of time. By focusing just five minutes each day of your time, you can LITERALLY change your life.
by Kathy on April 1, 2008
When Darren Rouse of Pro-Blogger posts, bloggers listen. So when I saw that he had post “Should I Change My Website Into a Blog” I felt compelled to share my experience.
Darren points out 6 reasos why you might want a blog and 5 reasons why you might not want a blog for your business. It’s a great post and I heartily recommend it to you.
Darren states that one reason you may not want to use a blog to promote your business is that blogs take time to mature. A HEARTY AMEN TO THAT!!!! Nothing frustrates me more than to have a blogging client contact me 6 weeks after the launch of their blog and complain that they aren’t ranked #1 on a highly competitive search term which they haven’t used ONCE in any of their 6 posts. However, it takes time for ANY web presence to “mature”… even traditional ones which are launched with all their content “in tact” and ready to roll.
Darren also recommends blogging daily. If your blog is the foundation of your business, then by all means, you’ll be posting at LEAST once daily to generate the kind of content you need to generate. If you want to blog for blogging’s sake… then think of it as launching your own independent newspaper. Fresh content and breaking news are truly king.
However, most of my clients don’t aspire to full time blogging. My clients want a powerful marketing tool they can use to promote their business.
I’ve played it both ways. I had a “conventional” web site parked here for YEARS!!! When my web site was “just a web site”, when a potential client would contact me, the conversations would begin with “so and so says you’re wonderful.” After launching the blog, my phone began to right with people saying, “I read your post on [insert topic here] and I thought you might be able to help me. I can’t say I ever had ANYONE who wasn’t a referral contact me without an article being picked up by a newsletter prior to launching the blog.
Darren is MUCH more “balanced” on this issue than I am. Read his 23 Questions for Prospective Bloggers… despite earning a comfortable income from his blog, he still doesn’t think it’s for everyone.
However, Darren blog is his business. My clients are encouraged to see their blogs as COMMUNICATION TOOLS for their businesses.
My favorite word picture is as follows and I use it with clients who have a web site they love and they are considering whether to add a blog. Read that post here: Using Your Blog to go Fishing (warning, it’s targeting authors, but it works for any business!)
