Managing your reputation is not always easy. You work really hard to build a respectable brand and then someone comes in and tries to tear it down. Luckily for you though, here are some great online reputation management tips and tools that can help you stay on top of the game.

Think Domain

The first thing you have to do is buy domain names. Yes, multiple ones. Buy .com, .org, .net, and almost every other domain extension associated with your brand so that no one else can use it against you. If you use an exact match keyword domain name, then it may be hard to get the .net and .org versions, which is fine. But if you are a VA mortgage lender, you best be sure that you own every exact match domain name for your brand. And thanks to Google suggest, things like ‘reviews’, ‘sucks’, and ‘scam’ along with your brand keyword are a lot more prevalent, so buying domains with these keywords in them (ex. brandsucks.com) can help manage your reputation.

Choose Your Tool and Start Monitoring

My favorite tool for monitoring your brand on the web and blogosphere by far is Google Alerts. It’s simple, free, and sent straight to your email. You can have it set up to send an email once-a-week, once-a-day, or whenever something comes up. And since most people use Google to find businesses online, knowing what Google is keeping track of is very important. Set up a Google alert for your brand name and you can even use it to keep track of other keywords (and competitors if you really want).

Content Builds Brands

The biggest thing you can do is be a content creator. The real-time web is now in the search engine results. And the pervasiveness of Facebook and Twitter mean that people will seek you out on these platforms for good or bad. You must participate in them. It would be foolish not to. Set up an account (personal and/or company) and start engaging and creating content. Also, make sure to have a blog that is consistently being updated. Use it to post news, industry trends or whatever fits for your company/brand. This will become valuable if you ever need to respond to a situation.

Manage Your Social Web

Use a program such as HootSuite that allows you to manage all three social networks with one easy to use interface. It allows you to schedule tweets, status updates, and even integrates with Ping.fm. Plus, by keeping your search column open, you can monitor your brand at all times allowing prompt response. And you can post to your Wordpress blog through the application. Having an application like this can greatly increase your productivity regarding online reputation management. If you don’t like HootSuite, try CoTweet or something similar but managing a company’s social media platforms cannot be done on twitter.com itself.

Proactive Not Passive

By actively managing your reputation online now, it will make it a lot easier when something bad actually does happen and you need to do damage control, so it’s good to be proactive and not passive about this. If you have a voice, you’re much better positioned against attacks, and will gain credence with the online generation.

About the Author: Kevin Kaiser is a entrepreneur who deals with online marketing and reputation management for start-ups he’s involved in and can be found writing at Startup Biz Blog.

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These days the word ‘hype’ is frequently given negative connotations. It is true that one interpretation of the term is an excessive or exaggerated claim of a product or service’s importance, but originally the term was used to describe more cleverly worked promotion and fostering of positive word-of-mouth.

The TV Teaser

The latter definition can be seen working extremely well in modern television, where yet-to-be-aired TV shows will play very short adverts or give 5 second snippets of a show, just to get people talking about it.

This, often coupled with poster and viral campaigns promoting messages such as “its coming!”, help to get the rumour mill going into overdrive.

Play on Curiosity

Humans are the most curious animals on earth (perhaps second to cats) and not knowing what something means, especially when we seeing clues all over the place, drives us crazy. We start talking to friends about what it all means, start Googling clues that the ads have given us and even start writing blogs about what we think might be “coming”.

 Your new business venture might not have the funds or the reach to carry out a ‘hype’ campaign to the same scale, but you can definitely adopt some of the principles to get your new business venture into people’s consciousness before you even launch.

 Here is just one way that you can generate hype with a relatively low budget.

 Create a mystery website, and then promote it.

 Chances are you will at some stage have a full website built for you business that will outline all your products or services, as well as contact details and news etc. Before you set this live however, why not put a very simple, yet intriguing 1-page site live that just hints at what people can expect soon.

You might want to use interesting imagery, a tag line or even some poetry to get visitors wondering what exactly your business is all about. A great idea is to place 2-3 short video clips on the page that don’t give too much away, but just add to the intrigue.

Videos are a rich media that people like to analyse more than copy and are often distributed better. If you’re really clever you can include subtle messages or website addresses in your videos that will encourage people to dig deeper.

 Take a look at this video for Derren Brown’s “The Events” which aired last year in the UK on Channel 4. 

 
The program was all about trickery, illusion and subliminal mind control and the advert alone built up so much hype, Derren received record viewing figures for the show when it aired. Here is another video speculating what the advert’s hidden messages where:

Even if you don’t include video on your website, you can still get one produced pretty cheaply that you can use to create something of a viral campaign.

The video doesn’t need to be professional produced, as an amateurish feel often adds to its draw. Promote the video on YouTube, but also get your messages out on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit and as many other social sites as you can.

If you work the whole process correctly you can generate so much buzz surrounding your business that when it comes to launch time you will hit the ground running, and stand the best chance of making it through the most difficult early stages where most new companies struggle.

 BIO: Duncan is an internet marketer and business consultant representing a London-based spa days company. He often blogs about top marketing techniques and getting the best ROI from promotional activities.

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Photo Credit: Alex Cameron

Marketing  for any small business is incredibly time consuming, and if you’re only one person or a small army of hardcore marketers, you want to make sure you’re optimizing around acquiring new customers and re-selling to current customers.

Focus on the RIGHT numbers

While marketing can be a volume game, it’s easy to measure the wrong metrics and to aim for the wrong goals. We came across that problem when we were shooting for high volume traffic, but it wasn’t converting as we expected. The Key Performance Indicator should have been sales, not traffic.

Spend money to get money back

Sure, goodwill is a good idea. Advertising is good for branding purposes too. But will these things help you reach your goals, which mean more revenue and more profit? Will goodwill turn into an amazing piece of press for your company that in turn will lead to sales? Will that branding campaign cause more people who were initially hesitant to purchase at one point, to actually pay for your product or service at another time? You have to have justification for your initiatives, as well as proper metrics to measure the effectiveness of the programs; otherwise you’re just wasting time doing things that might not be working or things that do not work as effectively as other things.

Double down on what’s working

It’s important to know what is affecting the bottom line and focus more of your efforts on what will help you reach your business’ goals. Cut out the fat and stop doing things that aren’t as effective as other things you can do or things that aren’t effective at all.

Test, Test, Test!

If what you’re doing works well enough for you, then that’s great, but if you want to take your business to the next level, test out ways to make what you’re doing even more effective. Try out new things with CRM like offering different sales and promotions, rearranging your website and its contents for readability and usability, or just testing a few things with your email marketing.

 About the Author: Danny Wong is the Lead Evangelist for Blank Label, a provider of men’s custom dress shirts. He specializes in Small Business Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

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 The following is a guest post from Amanda Mitchell  a freelance writer who specializes in getting the most of technology for small businesses. You can reach Amanda at mitchell_amanda (at) ymail.com

You’ve started a small business and quit your day job. Good for you! But just because you’re working from home now doesn’t mean you won’t be interacting with others on a daily basis. If you run a service-based business, you need to communicate with your clients. While e-mail and instant messaging can be useful to convey quick messages, the time may come when you need to have a real conversation with your clients. If you’re in New York and they’re in California, meeting at the office is out of the question. This is where conference calls come in.

Be careful, though. Working from home can cause some people to get a little too comfortable. You might be sitting at a desk, working on a computer, but if your professional dress code entails flannel pajamas and fuzzy slippers, it can be very easy to forget you’re dealing with professionals who are expecting you to be professional too. A few simple tips will help you prepare for your conference calls, and keep your professional reputation intact.

Get dressed

There’s nothing wrong with working in pajamas, sweats, or even a muumuu, if that’s your thing. Part of the reason you wanted to work from home was that you knew you could be just as productive while you were comfortable as you were when you had to dress up in constrictive business attire. Maybe even more productive, right? But interacting with others via e-mail, instant message, or social media is very different from actually talking to them.

If it helps you maintain a professional demeanor during the conference call, get out of the pajamas and into some real clothes, even if it’s just jeans. It will remind you that it’s not an ordinary day where it’s just you, your computer, and your Twitter friends, and will help you stay focused.

Get the kids out of the room

A lot of people start businesses from home to spend more time with their kids, or simply to avoid paying nearly what they earn at a regular job on the daycare they’ll need while they’re at work. Setting up shop at home makes all the sense in the world, until you have to get on the phone with your clients and your kid is having a meltdown.

A crying child is not good background noise, and may cause your clients to wonder whether you’ll be able to get their project done while facing the demands of home. Your kids are important, but so is your business, and your clients deserve your full attention during a phone call. If your kids are school age, schedule the conference call during school hours. If they’re not, wait until nap time. If this doesn’t work for your client’s schedule, especially if they’re in a different time zone, ask a friend or family member to come over and keep the kids busy while you take the call.

Don’t eat

It may sound like common sense, but if you have to schedule a conference call during what would normally be your lunch time because it’s when your client is available, you may think there’s nothing wrong with having a sandwich while you talk. They can’t see you, right? No, but they can hear you, and the sound of chewing or lip smacking is not going to endear you to anyone. The last thing you want is a mouth full of tuna salad right when the client asks you to explain your project time line so they can approve your budget.

Sure, some meetings are held over meals, but this is a conference call. There are no visual cues or body language to enhance your communication, and it’s even worse if you’re the only one eating. All they have to go on is your voice, so don’t obscure it with food. This also goes for chewing gum, or hard candy. No, and no. Have a glass of water nearby, sure, but no eating. Period.

Turn off the TV

Some people need the ambient noise of the television, the radio, or their iTunes library to keep them on task. It may not distract you, but it will definitely distract whoever is on the other end of the line. They need to be able to clearly hear what you’re saying. Not to mention, hearing Oprah in the background may make them wonder whether you’re actually getting any work done.

Keep things quiet, behave professionally, and your clients don’t ever have to know you work in your pajamas.

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Photo Credit: Mike “Dakinewavamon” Kline

 In this guest post Brenda Harris shares her thoughts on the pros and cons of outsourcing for the small business owner.

It’s an issue that is kicking up a storm today because of the high rate of unemployment – President Obama has on his agenda the issue of moving jobs back to the USA from India, China and other countries where they’ve been outsourced to take advantage of low costs and a capable workforce.

It’s the larger corporations that are now in the line of fire – they’re being called tax evaders who have moved much of their operations overseas so that they’re able to make huge profits. But if you take a closer look at this phenomenon called outsourcing, you’ll find that almost all businesses are guilty of it at some time or the other.

Outsourcing is Out There

For example, banks outsource debt collection to private agencies or individuals who buy the loans from them at a slightly lower rate. Telecommunication and other service-oriented companies outsource their customer service and troubleshooting operations to smaller organizations. And even the U.S. Defense Department is guilty of outsourcing auxiliary military duties to contractors in Afghanistan so that US military personnel are free to take care of “core” tasks.

Outsource Something, Not Everything

So even if you’re a small company, there’s no guarantee that you’re never going to outsource any of your operations. In fact, if you’re a small business, it makes sense to outsource, especially those tasks that are routine and not tied explicitly to the operations of your company. Most small organizations outsource their annual audit and tax preparation or their technical programming/coding process. This is because they don’t have customized needs for these operations, so they’re bound to get them cheaper from companies who are dedicated to tax preparation and offering technological solutions for fields like customer service, business intelligence, data mining and so on.

Be Selective

One aspect that most companies forget to take into consideration when they outsource is to check the difficulty of the integrating the result of the task they are delegating to other organizations with the entirety of their own operations. The task itself may not be that hard, but when the finished product is in, it may have compatibility issues with the rest of the operations of the organization.

As a simple example, if you outsource your customer service and later find that the company who takes care of this aspect for you is at the receiving end of a host of negative criticism, it is your organization that loses face and repute, not the one that you outsourced your customer service operations to.

Final Word

In general, it is not wise to outsource critical or sensitive operations – those that are essential to the existence and survival of a company, and those that require the highest level of security. Also, if you don’t manage your outsourced operations and ensure that they are compatible with your in-house operations and that quality is at the highest level, all the cost benefits that you gain through outsourcing tend to be lost in the resultant confusion.

This guest post is contributed by Brenda Harris, who writes on the topic of executive mba programs . She can be reached at her email id: brenda.harris91@gmail.com .

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In this guest post Lena Morrish and Dima Nikolayenko share their tips to building a website that keeps your customers satisfied, and coming back for more!

It is fairly common knowledge that there is wider acceptance of the online mode of shopping today, than ever before.

More and more customers who never considered the online mode for making routine (as well as exotic!) purchases are starting to discover the absolute convenience of being able to carry out their shopping from the comfort of their homes or offices, make payments online, and have the merchandise delivered to where they would like it to – totally hassle free!

Online Shopping Challenges

That said, all online business store owners – small or big, need to make sure that their customers remain happy with their efforts and keep coming back to them often. This is particularly true in the face of significant competition online. 

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One of the major challenges that online stores face in particular is the lack of personalization and the human touch or element, which is often extremely important to many shoppers – they like to touch and feel the products that they are looking to buy. Another agonizing experience for online shoppers is the lack of instant nirvana or gratification – they actually have to wait out for the item that they have bought to arrive through the mail.

Advantages are Numerous

Yet, online stores proffer numerous advantages which actually outweigh the disadvantages by a huge margin. Customers can get exactly what they want, however exotic the item may be, something which a lot of offline, brick-and-mortar stores are loath to stock up on. Also, they never need to leave where they are, and can order, pay and expect delivery of the item they have shopped, from the comfort of their home or office.
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Online stores are great for the sellers as well – no major inventory to stock up on, neither any costs of sales personnel to incur. The only major costs are the marketing costs and ensuring that customers actually visit as well as buy things from the store. 

Not to Burst Your Bubble, But…

But that is where the catch is – the costs, or at least the efforts for marketing and promotion are reasonably significant. This is particularly true since barriers to entry for all other prospective sellers are reasonably low, and there is immense competition.

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Also, while you may be able to sell to the whole world, anyone in the entire world could be selling those items too, as against having a shop in a particular neighborhood, where, by and large, you are competing with shops only in the vicinity.

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So, how to build a good website that keeps your customers fully satisfied?

Find the Right Tools

This is where website building tools really come in handy; they guide you on ensuring that your efforts are channelized in the right direction so that you end up getting maximum bang for your buck (particularly when the bucks we are referring to here are essentially metaphorical, denoting the efforts that you put in more than the money).

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For instance, keyword research tools can save you a huge amount of time and effort by providing you with just the right keywords that users are likely to key in when searching for what you have on offer. Similarly, there are tools such as those for email marketing and promotion, affiliate marketing tools, web design and hosting tools and so on, which can together go a long way in ensuring that your efforts pay off to the maximum.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it would be wise to try out each tool one after another and see which one works best for you; you can then accordingly channelize your efforts and focus on those tools that work the best. The approach maybe is slow to begin with, but ultimately it bears maximum fruits. 

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Lena Morrish and Dima Nikolayenko, internet publishers, can show you how to  start up an internet business and use appropriate tools such as website building tools, keyword research tool, follow up autoresponder etc. to make your customers happier and create their desire to keep returning to your website.

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The topic of increasing online sales through conversion rate optimization has been discussed in length recently and rightfully so. More and more online stores are looking at conversion rate optimization as a means to increase online sales, alongside traditional means such as increasing traffic volumes.

Four Smart Pricing Tips to Increase Online Sales

One area which is often overlooked, is using smart product pricing as part of the conversion rate optimization process.

1. Show The Customer How Much Can Be Saved

Whether or not your website has the newest features or hasn’t been updated for some time, at the end of the day customers are looking to save money. They will often compare your prices vs the prices of their local store, so some savings has to be reflected and visible shown. Products will often come with an RRP or suggested list prices. Visibly show this price and your price as it’s a very strong pricing message. My favorite way to display this message is RRP $$ Our price $$ (% of saving or you save $$).

2. Waver Shipping Costs

Excessive shipping costs will often result in negative customer reaction and basket abandonment. Free shipping on the other side of the scale, will cause the opposite and result in a more positive customer reaction. Now, of course wavering shipping is easier said than done, but there are couple of tricks you could try. The first is to offer free shipping over a certain order value which works, but is very limited in its effectiveness. The second is to include the basic cost (to you that is) of the shipping in the price of the product. You will still need to ensure the end price is competitive, however the behavioral effect on the customer will be worth the effort. 

3. Compare Your Prices To Others

If you excel in this area, don’t be shay from visibly showing your prices and your competitor prices (just don’t link to them ). Chances are your customers will first look around, research and compare prices anyway. By giving them all the information at once, this pricing strategy can help bring their buying decision forward. Pricing aside and looking at the overall conversion rate process, you could also compare availability and shipping costs next to each price.

4. Reward Customers Who Buy Multiple Items

A smart pricing strategy will reward customers who buy multiple items at one go. From the business perspective, more items means higher order value and more revenue. There are many types of rewards to consider from upgraded shipping (when the normal shipping is free), to discount off the total amount or even upgraded products. The principle is, if you want customers to spend more, you’ll need to work for it. 

Online shoppers often look for the web in order to save money. Pricing your products smartly will ensure you are still relevant.

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Guest post by specs sellers Glasses Direct. Offering a range of specs and sunglasses online. 

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The following is a guest post by Sean Harper, one of the co-founders of TransFS an online comparison shopping website that helps business owners quickly and easily compare credit card processors. Here Sean shows you how to be an informed shopper when shipping from credit card processing. 

The majority of businesses now accept credit cards, and for many it is the most important financial service – the one that is most mission-critical and most expensive.  Unfortunately, the majority of business owners get a really lousy deal on their credit card processing.  According to a Federal Reserve publication (P.20) The Merchant-Acquiring Side of the Payment Card Industry: Structure, Operations and Challenges businesses with less than $1M in credit card receipts / year pay between 0.69% and 1.82% more than the wholesale (interchange) price that Visa and Mastercard pay for transactions.  Here are my 5 steps for getting a good deal on your credit card processing.

1. Be Professional and Know What you are Looking For

If you need a particular processing setup to work with your POS system or internet gateway know that in advance, you will sound like you know what you are talking about and it will screen out processors that are not expert at dealing with that situation (which costs more in both the short and long run). 

2. No Cancel Fee

Never, ever, ever agree to a cancellation fee.  The majority of processors will waive their standard cancel fee to seal a deal.  Having a cancel fee which often range from $300 to $several thousand gives the processor a terrible incentive to provide you good service and keep your fees constant.

3. Interchange Plus Pricing

- there are a number of structures for credit card processing contracts.  Interchange plus is the best because you are charged the visa/mastercard "interchange" or wholesale rate and then a predetermined, constant markup above interchange.  It’s like buying a car for a set markup over the invoice price, you know that the car dealer is selling you the car for $500 more than they bought it from the manufacturer so you know you are getting a decent deal. 

As a friend of ours who runs a software company said: "saying interchange plus is like saying – ‘I know better, so don’t try to rip me off’".  Steer away from ERR (Enhanced Recover Reduced) and Tiered pricing schemes.  This blog article has some quotes from an executive at Global Payments, a bit credit card processor, about how they make less money on interchange-plus because it is less confusing . 

4. Shop Around

Interchange plus offers are easy to compare to each other, so shop with at least 5 processors, make sure they understand that you are shopping around and they need to be competitive.

5. Don’t Rent or Lease Equipment

For the most part credit card processing equipment is quite cheap now.  Those little black terminals that you see in small retail stores usually cost $100 – $300 and a full-fledged POS system is a little more than a desktop computer, less than $2000.  If you own your own equipment there is less chance for them to sneak in extra profit by padding your lease payments and it also makes it easier to switch if something goes wrong in the relationship.

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If you were to ask someone what they think the point of marketing is, you will likely hear that marketing is all about advertising, about letting as many people know about your company, to get exposure.

If that is what your goal is, then you will probably end up broke.

The truth of the matter is that you could shout your company name and slogan from the rooftops and it may not get you anyplace. Why not?

Because everyone is shouting from the rooftops, and your message is just one more buzz among all of the white noise.

Advertising Overload

Several groups have done studies on the amount of marketing messages that people are exposed to. The studies concluded that the average American is exposed to between from 247 to 3,000 marketing messages each and every day, depending on the specific study and what they considered a “marketing message”.

But if you take a minute to consider all of the places we see ads, such as television commercials, in magazines we read while waiting to get our hair cut, billboards we see on our way to the office, bumper stickers on the car in front of us that is going five under the speed limit, then you will come to realize that our brains are literally bombarded with these messages.

That is why our minds have evolved a highly tuned filtering system that turns all of it into background noise. These marketing messages have become invisible.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to get the attention of consumers when there is such a cacophony of other marketing happening all around them.

The key lies in one simple word – differentiation.

Simply Put, How are you Different?

The newspapers and yellow pages are filled with companies that just put their name out there and pray. They think that just by making their presence known, customers will crawl out of the woodwork like roaches and begin calling them, wanting what they have to offer.

If you want to truly succeed in marketing, you need to figure out how you are different from the competition. Figure out a niche to serve or a unique benefit you offer that nobody else does. Then you have to figure out a way to clearly communicate that to your target market.

The Bottom Line

Come up with a compelling reason why consumers should do business with you as opposed to someone else. Then find a way to stand out in the way you get your message out. Be unique, be different, and make people notice you.

This is the true point of marketing. This is how you beat your competitors and keep people flocking to buy your product.

Brent Allan is an expert at marketing your small business and growing your profits. He is also the head honcho over at www.BizWarriorOnline.com and publisher of the “Million Dollar Newsletter.”

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Most small business owners understand the importance of having a blog as part of their business. However, figuring out where to start and how to grow the blog is a daunting task – Today’s guest post from David Gurevich (who’s posted here before, sharing SEO tips for small business websites)  should help answer those questions you have about begining to blog.

David recently visited Israel and helped his 14 year old nephew start a blog on iPod hacks: the iPod Wizard.  With experience with more than 10 internet start-ups, David wrote this letter on the flight back to Boston to help teach his nephew how to blog.

A Letter to My Nephew

Dear Benjy,

      The road to a successful online blog may seem foggy to you, but I have learned with experience what the first few steps are.  As follows is everything about blogging that you need to know.  Because we can’t take walks together anymore as I’ve left for the States, I’ve written it down for you.

      Getting Initial Traffic/Subscribers

      First, always use keyword tools to find high volume/low competition search phrases and to see what people are thinking or are curious about.  Google Keywords is one useful one, as is Wordstream.  You can use Wordstream to find good options to plug into Google Keywords; other keyword tools are also useful, but sometimes not so accurate. 

      These tools will take a keyword phrase like “green bananas” and tell you how many people search for it monthly.  If 10,000 people monthly, for instance, want to learn about “green banana pies” and no other site is offering an article on that, it’s quite easy to get that traffic. 

      A strong initial move is to find a keyword that many people are searching for but doesn’t have significant competition.  A good initial target is a phrase that has 5-10,000 monthly searches.  Write an article on that keyword.  Then you can join forums and add links to your article – this is too much of a pain to do for all your articles, but can be a great way to rank well initially and get some good traffic.

      To get initial subscribers, people who sign up for your blog’s updates, this is one of the best strategies: write 5 AWESOME posts that are really useful or interesting.  Post them to your site.  Now keep posting awesome posts, at least 1 a week, but also post awesome posts on related blogs. 

      To do so, you have to find blogs in your niche and convince the owner to allow you to provide a guest post.  It isn’t so hard because everyone wants free, high-quality content.  This article, for instance, is a guest post.

      What is an “Awesome Post”?

      An awesome post is one that is typically long, interesting, either original or provides a new angle on an idea, and makes readers think “wow, this is awesome.”  Creating one can take several hours to research, write and edit.  Here is more on that strategy; this article, which discusses all the medications for treating a common condition, is one of my attempts to write an ‘awesome’ article.

      Sharing some of your best posts – at first – can attract attention and new subscribers from the people most interested in your writing.

      But while long, authoritative posts are a great strategy, I have seen many blogs that thrive on many short ones, especially when they are commenting or responding to news items.  The best idea, in my opinion, is to provide many awesome posts. 

      Since that may be too much work, consistently providing great posts mixed with many short ones is a common strategy.

      Remember, the title of each post is the single most important thing.  It will determine if people read your post, what they expect from it, and if search engines will send it traffic.  Make it your habit to use effective titles.

      Also remember that getting links that point to your site is the number one way to get traffic to the site from search engines.  Every link that points to your site is like a vote saying it is high quality.  That said, links from “bad” sites can be worthless. 

      Again, identify and befriend existing blogs in the same niche.  You can do this by searching for related phrases like, “iPod blog,” and so on.  They are your competition until you befriend them.  Then ‘a rising tide floats all boats.’ 

      Develop relationships with your readers.  Respond to their comments with an eye towards developing a long-term relationship.  You want to develop a base of subscribers who appreciate the posts you provide, and who will help spread the word for you. 

      Post and respond to news items.  For you, if Apple does something – cover it!  Show off your personality in your posts when possible because it is that which people are drawn to.  A blog is your personal brand so make sure to represent.

      How to Keep on Track

      You need to set a schedule for posting.  Make a schedule that you can stick to, then stick to it.  This is absolutely essential.  You have more free time than you think, and when you have to get something done by a certain time, you will.  Set goals and standards & meet them.  For myself, for instance, my goal is to write at least 2 articles a week, with one focused on a new or challenging medication. 

      Be creative, but train yourself to be creative in a way that leads to success.  Andy Warhol has no more talent than dozens of artists I know who are poor.  His genius was marketing his creativity. Remember those conversations we have about how bad modern hip-hop artists are?  Their poor quality doesn’t hold them back from making millions of dollars – being able to sell something can have little to do with how good the thing actually is. 

      Look at the top blogs and see what they do – best of all, figure out which of their posts are linked to or most commented.  Those posts can teach you much more than I about what a great post is.

      On that subject, occasionally check out Digg.com to find out what is popular.  The articles that make it to the front page there can also tell you a lot.

      When writing instructions, assume your reader knows the bare minimum and is not that smart.  Assume impatience – if things aren’t clear or make sense in a matter of seconds, the visitors go away.

      Always remember that people pay attention to something as long as they find it interesting.  People have horribly short attention spans but when you get their attention you can hold it as long as you are capable. 

      To improve your writing style, find the best writing that does something similar and learn from it.  Different situations call for different styles, but some writing, like that of The New York Times, is always a delight.

      General Advice

      Have a Google alert for your brand name.  This will let you quickly know whenever you are mentioned.

      If you run out of post ideas, use keyword tools to find things people are searching for.  That will almost always give you an idea or two.  Or make a list!  Some of the most popular posts are lists, like “50 ways to have more energy.” 

      Find a good monetization method. Remember, having 100 visitors daily and selling one $50 product makes as much money as having 5,000 and getting paid from advertising.  Guess which one is easier?

      Use ad placement that does not detract from your readers’ experience but that makes you good money.

      Keep up to date with the best practice security.  You do not want your site shut down because of a virus.  Respond to comments with an eye towards building a long term relationship.  Have a mission statement or goal and use it to guide all your decisions.

      When you employ someone, make sure they understand why they are needed.  They are making the website so…, they are running a PR campaign so… This will make their lives easier while ensuring the product you get is in line with your goals.

      Favor paying a little more to get a great job over paying little and getting something that reflects badly on you.  Your website design can easily cost in the thousands depending on complexity and quality, but remember that your design is an investment.  It controls how readers view your content and frames everything.  So it’s quite important.

      Be passionate about what you do.  This is made easier by choosing to do things that you are passionate about.  When you care about something, it will show in everything you do and will lead to you success and keep you going through the hard times.

      Have metrics for success.  You will be successful when you have this many visitors a month, and make this much revenue.  Set reasonable yet ambitious goals.  Choose a great domain name, possibly one that includes relevant keywords.  But you’ve done that already.

      Know what you do best and how valuable your time is.  If your work is worth $30 an hour, spending time on $15 an hour work is waste of your time.  Most importantly, doing the $30 work will improve the skills that take you to $45 an hour, while the less paid work typically leads nowhere that you aren’t already.

      As such. it makes sense to pay someone $15 an hour so you can do the $30 an hour work.

Now thinking like that only works if you are serious.  If you are worth $30 an hour but spend your time watching YouTube videos or wasting time, then such analysis doesn’t matter.

      Be very careful in hiring people.  It is a lot like starting a relationship or dating someone, which you will soon learn more about!  You will get burned by someone you hire sooner or later, this I can promise you, but you will at some point have to do it nonetheless.

      Get business cards with your site address to give to people.  When advertising, be very careful and know how to gauge success.  StumbleUpon advertising, for instance, can be fun if you get stumbled (which isn’t that hard), but after the thousands of people visit – how many new subscribers did you get?

      Numbers are one thing, cash in your bank account or loyal readers is another.

      In Conclusion…

      Planning is the key to success.  As mentioned, you can even plan creativity or inspiration.  That said, sometimes great ideas happen when you least expect them.  It is a common misconception, however, that this means not trying or working hard is OK if you have sudden breakthroughs.

      As many wise people have said, “the more I prepare, the luckier I find myself.”

      There is nothing like setting goals – and meeting them – to improve your performance, quality and achieve greatness. 

      Listen most carefully to criticism because it almost always has some truth in it that is something you can improve.  Praise, on the other hand, deafens you quite quickly.

      Realize that hard work means getting up earlier than your competition and going to sleep later.  But there are millions of people who work 12 hours a day and remain in horrible poverty.  If you ever feel too proud, remember that it is only luck that you do not have that fate.

      Still, it is no longer luck when you work intelligently and make the 8 hours you work worth a great deal.  That is why you must plan.  A planned move is silent but when you reach your destination will ring with obviousness.

      Realize that blogging is a learning process.  My first posts seem terrible to me now, but they were 100% needed.  Only after writing about 100 of them has my writing become somewhat better.  Still, with editing – and an eye towards meeting the needs of your readers – you will do quite well.

      I wrote all that to share some of the things your Uncle has learned the hard way but will end with the simple truth.

      If you can provide great quality posts consistently while building a relationship with your readers, you will succeed.  Do that, and I can promise results.  There are many nifty and fun diversions along the way like advertising and promotions, but everything else is just a detail. 

      To repeat: Provide great quality posts consistently while building a relationship with your readers.

      Make doing that your goal and you will succeed.

      I wrote these words and published them on a top blog to give your site a boost and show you how much I care.

      With love,

      Your uncle,

       David

David is happy because his blogging on medical topics has helped thousands of people understand their conditions and medications better.  Hopefully this post will help you better understand how to blog.  David occasionally tries his luck (fairly successfully) as an SEO consultant and recently wrote an adult add adhd book.

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Photo Credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com