16-Point Checklist for Creating the Perfect Blog
Measure twice, cut once. That guidance works in blogging and article writing just as well as it works in carpentry. Below is a 16-point checklist against which you should “measure” every piece of content you publish online. (And honestly, most of the points apply to print pieces as well.) Study the list, print it out, and make sure any other writers on your team also have this at their sides. ? Uniqueness. Does your blog offer information that is generally not available elsewhere, or a new perspective on the information it conveys to the reader? ? Headline. Does the headline leverage a basic human emotion, such as fear of missing out, curiosity, desire or even anger? Does your headline or title include your keywords? Is it between 40 and 69 characters in length? ? Opening. Does your first paragraph “set the hook”? Does it grab the reader in just one or two short sentences? ? Closing/Call to Action. Does your article close with a call to action? There should be something you want your reader to do or at least take away with every article you write. Be sure you handle this properly at the end of your article. ? Subheads. Have you broken up the copy with H2 and H3 subheads that catch the reader’s eye? They need to tell the reader that there is interesting and important information throughout the article. Does at least one subhead include your keywords? ? Links. Does the article include links to other content on your site that will enhance the reader’s overall understanding of the topic? Have you linked to valuable outside resources? Are the links anchored by words and phrases that are relevant to your SEO goals? Have you checked your links to make sure they are good? ? Keywords. Does your article contain your keywords and synonyms for your keywords? Don’t worry about hitting any density target; keep your writing flow natural. ? Evergreen. Have you written your article so it will stand the test of time? ? Scan-ability. Can your article be easily scanned to pick up its most important points? Have you used bullet lists where appropriate? ? Graphics. Does your post include one or more graphic? Have you given these graphics SEO relevant alternate text and file names? ? Proofreading. Has your article been proofread by someone other than yourself? Have you used an app like Grammarly to suggest corrections to your article? If you must proofread your own writing, check out this “4Steps to Edit Your Own Copy” infographic. One more hint: Use your computer’s ability to read text on the screen to read your article back to you as you proofread. Nothing spoils the perfect blog you intended to publish more than a big old typo or grammatical error. ? Cost effectiveness. Have you considered how your content can be adapted for use on other platforms – such as Slideshare – and merged with other content to create a white paper or ebook so you can maximize your time investment? ? Search engine snippet. Have you written a meta description that uses your keywords and will entice Google searchers to check out your article? Is your description less than 160 characters long, including spaces? ? URL. Have you given the page the article will...
read moreThis Week in Small Business: Expert roundups, Shark Tank inspiration and more…
You get to mind meld the brains of a lot of the most successful people in business this week, including one article that features the advice of 110 top bloggers. Leadership, management and productivity Ideas usually aren’t the problem; execution is: How to Execute Ideas as a Small Business. More than a fourth of all websites are built on the WordPress platform. Here’s the guide you need for WordPress website maintenance. Marketing and sales When you need a break from social media, these 20 alternatives will help you build up your small business. But if you need to refill your social media marketing gas tank, the three simple steps outlined here will help. It seems like a new live streaming app appears every week. Discover how you can use live streaming for your small business. Don’t settle for the advice of merely one person – read what 110 top bloggers say is their most successful social media action. Jayson DeMers says that content marketing is a game and he has a strategy guide for you. If you haven’t developed an influencer marketing program yet, this article is a good place to start. Don’t let anyone tell you that backlinks don’t matter anymore. Here’s the lowdown. You’ll learn some of the SEO tactics of Robbie Richards, Ramsay Taplin, Bryan Harris, Brian Dean, and Neil Patel in this piece. Not bad company. Advertising on Facebook can sometimes be an enigma, so these six B2B takeaways from six excellent Facebook ads is a welcomed relief. Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation To maintain forward momentum in startups, employees need to keep acquiring new skills and knowledge. Steven Scheck discusses ways to keep startup employees learning. With inspiration from “Shark Tank,” here are eight tips to help you deliver the perfect pitch for your business. Politics, government and the economy Is New York City trying to solve its congestion problem by making it impossible for small businesses to locate and survive there? With bipartisan support, the Small Business Healthcare Relief Act (H.R. 5477) passed the House and now goes to the Senate. The bill would reinstitute Health Reimbursement Arrangements, which were limited by the Affordable Care...
read moreBrexit and the Clash Between Globalism and Small Business
Although the British vote to exit the European Union was fairly close, it must be viewed as an event that reflects major undercurrents sweeping through Western nations. Two very powerful factors weighed against Brexit. First, people are very averse to change. They would rather stick with the misery they know than misery they don’t know. Second, pundits and leaders kept telling the British citizenry that it would be a dire mistake to exit the EU. Nonetheless, they rejected those arguments and fears, and said goodbye to the EU. Small businesses in the U.S. need to be carefully watching how this plays out in Great Britain. If I can paint a big picture for a moment, I think the Brexit, the rise of Donald Trump, and the success of Bernie Sanders are all part of the same social phenomenon: The average citizen no longer believes that their leaders have their best interests at heart. There are a number of derogatory names and phrases associated with this, such as: Globalism, Corporate greed, Power elite, Too big to fail, Political class, and others. While we can tinker with statistics to make them demonstrate pretty much anything we want to “prove,” it’s a fact that the middle class is feeling squeezed in every Western nation. The middle-class squeeze has been going on for decades while the world’s political class has been agreeing to global trade agreements and creating the European Union. The EU and these trade agreements are always billed as deals that will lift up the citizenry. I think the average citizen would say that the outcomes have been exactly the opposite; the more our political and corporate leaders have “globalized” economic and political power, the less well off the people have ended up. Global pacts and treaties are always “good” for national politicians and international corporate leaders because every deal gives them more power, but does small business benefit? I have to point out that in the U.S., business starts began going down at about the same time globalism started going up. Coincidence? We now have more business closures each year than we do business starts. Further, small business has always been the average citizen’s ticket to a comfortable middle-class life style. As business starts slip away, do we have any right to be surprised that the middle class is feeling squeezed? This also impacts the minimum wage debate. Who pays minimum wage? Honestly, most small businesses pay above the minimum wage. When you see a minimum wage protest, the folks holding the signs are always standing in front of one of the global fast food chains. I believe much of the angst about the minimum wage would dissolve if small business starts were at levels like they used to be. But without those new businesses opening in your community, less-skilled workers are forced to apply at one of the corporate-global-minimum-wage-paying outlets. So let’s turn our attention back to Brexit and its impact on small business. Although we won’t know this answer for some time, the critical question is: Will Brexit invigorate British small business? If it does, we need to completely reevaluate the way we look at trade...
read moreFour Ways Small Business Agility is Driving Success
There are few things more exciting to me than being in a room full of entrepreneurs sharing ideas and insights. And that is exactly what I recently got to do as I participated an AT&T roundtable recently with celebrity entrepreneur Bill Rancic in Chicago. Over a delicious dinner at RPM Steaks (owned by Bill and his wife), attendees shared the biggest changes they see and challenges they face. Additionally, we got to take out our crystal balls to predict where we see small business going in the future. Here are four of my big takeaways from the event. 1. Technology Lowers Barrier to Entry Susan Solovic, Bill Rancic Entrepreneurship is growing in popularity. Some of the attendees referred to it as the “Shark Tank” effect, but it could also be the result of a lower barrier to entry because of technology. Technology makes it easier to start and grow a business today. Resources are readily accessible online – even funding sources. Further, cloud computing solutions give small business owners the opportunity to access sophisticated management programs by paying only for what they use. Access to these tools creates a significant competitive advantage. 2. Mobility Improves Competitiveness Mobility provides important advantages for small businesses. It gives small business owners the ability to work from anywhere at anytime, so they are no longer tethered to their desks. They can be where their customers are without risking administrative mistakes. No more burning the midnight oil inputting information after being out in the field. The same is true for their teams. Many of the owners with whom I spoke have virtual teams. Technology platforms allow entrepreneurs to seamlessly coordinate and collaborate with team members around the globe. This opens up a pool of talent for small business owners that was never available to them previously. Access to the right people and talent is critical for a growing company. 3. Social Media Changes Everything Susan Solovic, Adam Toren, co-founder of YoungEntrepreneur.com; and Anita Campbell, founder and CEO, Small Business Trends. Social media is helping small businesses build their brands. One attendee told me she attributes her entire business success to Twitter. By using the right hashtags and by tweeting regularly she was able to attract the attention of the right people to get her business off the ground. (During the roundtable, participates were encouraged to tweet using the hastags #PowerofAnd and #Sweepstakes for a chance to win one of a number of great prizes including an LGG5 and a Microsoft Surface Pro.) On the flip side, social media is also one of the challenges small business owners admit they face. While its benefits are clear, the myriad platforms can be confusing and even overwhelming. It’s difficult to integrate and monitor all the platforms – or sometimes know which ones you should be focusing on. 4. Email is dying Email has been a primary source of communication for small businesses. However, according to many of the business owners in attendance, it is becoming obsolete. Younger workers and customers prefer texting or Facebook messaging to traditional email. The owner of a wholesale fish distributor said many of his young chef customers place their orders via a Facebook message. Managing that type of communication can be problematic at this early stage, but may become commonplace in the...
read moreWhat can you learn from Tupperware? Quite a lot if you rely on social networking
Do you know who Brownie Wise was? Here’s a hint: She was the first woman to be featured on the cover of Business Week magazine. What did she do in business to earn that honor? She was the woman who developed the Tupperware home party, and as I reflect on that innovation today I’m amazed at how much gratitude and credit we owe her. (By the way, there’s a movie in development – Tupperware Unsealed – in which Sandra Bullock is currently slated to play the role of Brownie Wise. What a great choice! I hope the movie gets made.) The story goes that the inventor of Tupperware, Earl Tupper, couldn’t figure out how to sell his products. A plain plastic bowl sitting on the shelf at the local Piggly Wiggly just wasn’t that appealing to shoppers. In the post-World War II era, a lot of women were back in their homes after having lost the jobs they held during the war when so many men were in the military. Plus, they were busy having all those Baby Boomer kids, so they spent a lot of time at home. Wise came up with the home party idea during which she could demonstrate the Tupperware “burping” process. That changed everything. Brownie passed away in 1992, so she never saw the way the Internet has transformed commerce. But let me point out something that is extremely important: I believe that Wise’s Tupperware home parties really marked the beginning of social networking for the purpose of sales. After all, what were the women who would gather in a neighbor’s living room other than a social network? Today, if you find a great deal on a product and want to share it with all your friends, you post a link on Facebook. Since 1951, locally hosted Tupperware parties have essentially been providing that same service. And they have the added benefit of snacks! There are lessons we can all learn from those living-room-based social networks and apply to our Internet-based social networks. Have something unique. The Tupperware burping feature made it unique and this let it immediately stand out from other, similar, products. Seamlessly communicate the uniqueness. How long does it take to burp a Tupperware container? Not long. You need to capture your audience quickly. This is true in living rooms and an even greater challenge on the Internet. If you can’t quickly and easily communicate your uniqueness – what makes you different – you won’t be successful. Be sociable. Think of your social network as individuals like the women who sit on couches and over-stuffed chairs at a Tupperware party down the street. Demonstrate good manners and respect. Remember, when you post something and it may be seen by thousands of people, those are thousands of individuals, each with his or her own ideas, problems, and preferences. Be inviting. Make people in your social networks want to participate in what you are promoting. Guests at a Tupperware party don’t get a hard sell, and as I mentioned above, they get snacks – whether or not they buy anything! Relate to and understand your prospects. Because it’s your neighbor who is hosting the Tupperware party and the sales rep is someone from the same background, they are familiar with the food storage...
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