Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Start Blogging, Keep Blogging, Attract the Right Customers

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How to Create a Business Blogging Plan

blogging plan
© Petr Ciz – Fotolia.com

Whether you’re starting from scratch or planning ahead for the quarter or year, these six steps break down the blog planning process to include every essential element. Put them together and you’ll have a comprehensive plan that sets up your business blog for maximum success.

This is my first guest post for Social Media Examiner.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/business-blogging-plan/

5 Ways to Avoid the Dreaded Blog Fade

Abandoned blog sends wrong message about business
© Pitamaha – Fotolia.com

Blogging is an effective way to show prospective customers how your company’s expertise can help them, but it only works if you do it consistently. These five these tips will help keep up your momentum long enough to see some results.

http://www.steamfeed.com/5-ways-avoid-dreaded-blog-fade/

Blog of Attraction: How blogging helps you attract your best clients and filter out the wrong clients

blogging is a magnet to attract customers

When we’re attracted to someone, we tend to value and trust what they say. We like who they are and may want to become our own version of that. Plus we like the results we’ve gotten when we’ve applied their advice and suggestions, or learned from their experiences.

When you achieve that level of attraction with your readers, they will want more of you. That’s the power of blogging.

You can view a PDF version of my article in choice, the magazine of professional coaching, by following this link to my LinkedIn profile:

http://lnkd.in/dHH96i2

Get Local Customers From Blog to Business and a Blog Post Slideshow Example

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Ticket dispenser for busy business
© Richard Cote – Fotolia.com

Five Ways Local Customers Get From Your Blog to Your Business

When you blog effectively, you build trust, familiarity and goodwill with prospective customers. That makes them much more open to your sales offers, and more likely to say yes if they’re the right fit. In my latest post at SteamFeed, I explain exactly how blogging makes that connection.

If you’re still wondering if blogging is worth your time, please read this!

http://www.steamfeed.com/five-ways-local-customers-get-blog-business/

How to repurpose a blog post as a slideshow (example)

Also new this week, I took one of my guest blog posts from 12 Most and repurposed it as a slideshow. By uploading it to the popular site SlideShare, I’m hoping to attract some new readers. I’m also glad to give my readers a different way to enjoy my content and absorb the ideas in a more visual format.

I was already working on the piece when I read Jay Baer’s post, Did We Just Invent a New Form of Blogging, about what he calls the “blog share.” It spurred me on to complete the slideshow and plan future ones.

Could you convert one of your blog posts the same way?

Click below to view the slideshow version of 12 Most Tedious Blogging Tasks You Can Outsource.

https://contentmasteryguide.com/outsource-your-blogging-slideshow

Fresh Advice for New Businesses and Bloggers

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124 Pieces of Advice You Need To Read Before You Start A Business

businessman-diving-in
© lucato – Fotolia.com

Are you thinking about making the plunge into starting your own business? Looking for some inspiration and guidance before you make that final decision to go for it all? DJ Thistle, co-founder of SteamFeed, asked the SteamFeed author community what advice they would give to someone who wanted to start their own business. I was happy to contribute my thoughts to this comprehensive piece.

http://www.steamfeed.com/124-tips-you-need-to-read-before-start-business/

10 Business Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

Ooops keyboard key
© momius – Fotolia.com

When I moved to Barrie in 2010, I launched a mission to get more Barrie businesses blogging. Since then I am thrilled to see more and more Barrie business blogs popping up (though I can’t take credit for them all). Yet, I think some are falling short of the incredible results that are possible.

In this guest post for the Barrie Chamber, I revealed 10 business blogging mistakes I see in Barrie (and beyond). If your business blog hasn’t delivered the results you were hoping for, check this list to make sure you’re not making any of these errors.

http://barriechamber.com/member-blog/10-business-blogging-mistakes-to-avoid

If you want to get the best return on your investment of blogging time, please join me for one of my upcoming business blogging workshops in Barrie.

Mastering the 3 Cs of Social Media

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Small business owners constantly tell me that blogging and social media are just too much work. The goal of this blog and my training workshops is to pass along tips and techniques that help you make the most of your time and get the best results from your efforts.

I also want to empower you to make decisions about what and how to outsource to others. In a three-part series for SteamFeed, I interviewed social media strategist Brooke Ballard of B Squared Media about the 3 Cs of social media, and how you can automate or outsource these tasks.

I shared a description of the first article in an earlier post. Here’s a quick link in case you missed it: How to Manage the 3 Cs of Social Media, Part One

If you want to receive all of my latest posts by email, click here to subscribe to the weekly Blogging Tips newsletter.

How to Manage the Flow of Social Media Conversation – The 3 Cs, Part Two

Excited-conversationWith so many other moving pieces to manage in a business, it can be difficult to keep up with the conversation on social media.

In the second part of my interview with Brooke Ballard of B Squared Media, we delved into how and when to outsource or automate conversation on social media. (Hint: Never automate conversation!)

http://www.steamfeed.com/manage-flow-social-media-conversation-3-cs-part-two/

How to Curate Content for Your Business on Social Media – The 3 Cs, Part Three

LibrarianIn between posting your own content and having conversations, curating content from other experts rounds out your social media marketing strategy.

To understand curation, Brooke Ballard from B Squared Media suggests you think of yourself as a librarian, not an author. Read more in Part Three of this series for SteamFeed.

http://www.steamfeed.com/curate-content-business-social-media-3-cs-part-three/

Stick to Your Categories and Listen to Your Customers

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The Online Marketing Institute was founded in 2007 and provides online courses where professionals, entrepreneurs, agencies, students and teams can learn about digital marketing.

In January 2014 they published their Top 40+ Digital Strategists in Marketing for 2014, and I was thrilled to be included in this very impressive group.

When they notified me, they asked me to provide one insight that will help people improve their online marketing in 2014. It was difficult to choose just one! I wrote about how choosing categories for what you share on social media is just as important as choosing categories for your business blog.

You can read my insight, along with seven others, in this post about social media marketing strategies.

Clean My Space listens to their audience

Screen shot Clean My Space YouTube channel

Have you met the Queen of Clean? She’s my friend Melissa Maker of Clean My Space, a Toronto-based cleaning company (Melissa’s team cleaned my space before I moved to Barrie).

She’s also a queen of online marketing, in particular what she’s created over at The Cleanest Place on YouTube.

I love what Melissa does to promote her business online, and was thrilled to use her as an example in a guest post I wrote for OMI – Customer-Sourced Content: 7 Ways to Turn Questions into Content.

It highlights the importance of turning to your customers and prospective customers for content ideas. You can never go wrong by answering actual questions! After all, if one person is asking, chances are many others are wondering the same thing.

P.S. If you have a subscription (or a free 30-day trial) at OMI, you can also watch my course about customer-sourced content or check out the slides on SlideShare.