5 Top Tips for Writing Calls to Action

Posted on January 27, 2013 by shari

If you want to sell, you must give your customer a call to action to act upon. If you want to grow your blog following, you’ll need to do the same thing.

1. Contact Me

Do you have your contact information in your reader’s face, above the fold? Yes! Is it out there where they can see it and don’t have to spend time looking for it? Great! Call to action: Ask them to email you if they have questions or ideas. Some people prefer to communicate by email and not be exposed in comments.

2. Social Media

Social media icons are great and a must-have on your blog, on every page and post. Don’t be afraid to give them a push, ask them to follow you on Twitter and tell them they can find you Facebook or Pinterest. In addition, it is not enough to have the links; be bold, be big, be creative with your CTAs. Remember big buttons with bold graphics and colors work. Here is a great post about CTA guidelines and buttons from Hongkiat.com.

Alternatively, write “If you liked this post, share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.” Remember to hyperlink the platforms to make it easy for them. Don’t make them work hard! There are WordPress plugins that will help you on this one so that you never forget to do it.

3. Encourage Comments

The comments are under the fold, and you will have a CTA there, but don’t wait until the end of the post; ask them for their opinions, their suggestions, and their experience within the blog post.

The last lines of your post should always have a call to action, such as, “What did you think of the topic? Let me know in the comments below”

4. Email Signatures

Every time you send an email, your signature is there with all of your links. A great idea is to include a question or a link to your latest post, with a teaser – a call to action – making them want to drop everything and go read it now.

5. Consistency Across the Board

Everywhere and anywhere that you have a profile (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Quora, G+, Pinterest, ANYWHERE!) include all of your links. The wording should be consistent, and the branding should be the same.

Final Thoughts on Calls to Action:

Remember to be very clear about the action you want them to take.

Make it easy for them. Don’t make them work hard. Have all your links in place.

10 Tips for Promoting Your Blog on Facebook

Posted on January 17, 2013 by shari

Facebook is still growing can you believe it? And still, there are a lot of bloggers who are not using Facebook on a daily basis to promote their blog.

Tips for promoting your blog on Facebook

Cover Photo – use the header for your blog as the cover image and if you change them on your blog then change them on Facebook. Show people what your blog is all about, but don’t go overboard with text, visuals visuals.
Profile image – That should be of you. Yes you.
Set your settings in your admin panel to allow other people to post on your wall. You want to create a conversation remember!
Use the highlight and pin at top feature. For example if you post every other day then pin highlight the post when you first post about it and then when you want to post again pin the status about the blog on the top until the next time post something from your blog.
About – fill it in! Include a short description about your blog, include all of your social links and include a way that they can contact you.
When you update your status with a blog post, use enticing descriptives. Create curiosity so that they will want to click on the link.
Facebook is once again rolling out improved image viewing capabilities, why? Images work. Use less text and more images with your links.
Share other people’s posts!
Post on other people’s walls relevant information and include links.
Link your comments on your blog to your Facebook page. Here’s a great article reviewing WP plugins for commenting

How are you promoting your blog on Facebook? Share your tips and ideas with us.

PalTip New Year’s Resolutions 2013

Posted on December 30, 2012 by shari

Happy New Year!

2012 for PalTip was great! We launched the PalTip website, released the first version of the PalTip system, opened the doors for beta users, and created a WordPress Plugin, which makes life as a tipping blogger, even easier. Yes, it has been a year of working hard to make it easier for you, to make money!

So what is going to happen in 2013? Lots!

PalTip New Years Resolutions:

We are dedicated to making PalTip better.
We are planning new a “bank” full of new features, options.
We are working to bring new awesome partners on board.
We are committed to listening to you! Your feedback is really important to us.
We are developing an easier and faster PalTip, which means more money for you!

Here are some of our best tips for you from the past year that will help you in the upcoming year:

What are your resolutions?

Do you have a goal that you want to meet? Is it financial or is it how many posts you are going to write a week, or how many items you are going to tip a day?
Are you going to use your time more effectively? (That’s an easy one if you use the PalTip Plugin)
Are you going to take a day off (more often) to enjoy life, your family, your friends and rejuvenate?
Are you going to focus on activities that will make you more money?
Improve your SEO?

And now on a personal level, here is my list:

Enjoy the little things in life.
Do more RAK (random acts of kindness).
Smile more (even when I don’t want to).
Send handwritten thank you notes.
Watch at least 2 TED talks a week on random subjects.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

Thanksgiving Is Down The Road And Christmas Is Around The Corner

Posted on November 21, 2012 by shari

As soon as the kids go back to school, I start to think about Thanksgiving that of course makes me think of Christmas and then New Years, oh those resolutions. How am I going to review, recommend, blog and blast, together with holiday preparations and activities? Every year the same question. Every year it eventually gets done but this year I want to have less white hair by January 1st.

What’s the secret?

Organization!

Quantum leap – Before we even talk about Thanksgiving let’s decide on our New Year’s Resolution NOW!

This is my list

1. Be nicer to one’s self. If you want to be super-human and take care of your family, of your home and your business, you have to take care of yourself. Eat better, sleep more and pamper regularly.
2. Be nicer and listen better to the people around me.
3. Pre organize – everything.
That’s it, those are my resolutions.
So the first and second are simple to comprehend and even to execute. The third is a little more difficult but hopefully these tips will help you.
1. Start writing your posts now for those busy weeks and here are some ideas for posts that work all the time:

The a-z guide….
Top 5, 7 10 tips for….
Down memory lane – take an old post and update it with new content linking to the original post
Use automated services like Storify or
Get personal – A day in the life of YOU
Guest blogs
Book Reviews
Events – What events are you planning on going to?
How to…..
Links – yes links your favorite links to….
Photographic essay

2. Make sure that your editorial calendar is ready for the next 4 months and not the usual month.

3. Take pictures. A new blogger recently asked me why they need a Smartphone with a good camera on it; she said that it was an expensive toy. Yes, it is an expense (and probably an expense that you can use for the company) but it is a business tool. A very good tool. No matter what niche you are in, you need images. Use your own. Snap away. You never know when you will be looking for an image of a rain puddle (recommending rubber boots?) or an image of the line in the supermarket (the love of online grocery stores).

4. Use your time wisely. Spend less time going through the back office of affiliate sites and use the PalTip plugin. Just put the partner link in the blog and the plugin will do the work for you.

5. If you are planning an email marketing campaign or even a Season’s Greeting card get it done before Thanksgiving. Write your copy and book the photographer. The earlier you get it done the better. All you will have to do is click on the send button.
(Don’t forget that many of your readers open their mail on their phones. Make sure your greeting card is mobile friendly.)

What are your tips for pre-scheduling your holiday work load? Share them with us, we love to learn from others.

Finding Your Niche – Where Is Your Passion?

Posted on July 31, 2012 by shari

Recently somebody asked me; “I want to blog, I want to make some extra cash, how do I find my niche?” Good question!

Niche

The idea of creating a blog that can monetized in order to bring home the extra bacon without leaving your home is nice, but it doesn’t really work that way.

How does it work?

Let’s go back to the question of “how do I find my niche?”

First, let’s focus on what you love. Where is your passion? What is your favorite thing to do?

It could be anything from bringing up your newborn to off-road biking to building computers from refurbished parts. Creating a business out of a personal passion is easier than starting from scratch. Remember that you will be spending hours upon hours researching and working on the topic, so being passionate about it makes it much easier.

Identifying Your Niche

Another way of identifying your niche could be by investigating your professional skills. Think of your expertise and how you can make an impact on a community with mutual interests. How can you become a valuable source of information on the chosen topic? How can you solve the pain of a particular community? If you can answer those questions, you might have found your niche.

Sounds good? Wait, that’s not all.

Taking your passion and knowledge into consideration is not enough. You also have to do the legwork and identify your target market. Although it might be your passion, you must study the ins and outs, research the size of the market, find out who your competition is, learn the language that the specific community speaks. Only then will you be able to figure out your monetization plan.

This takes time to do but is an essential first step towards your personal success. Think of it as a full-fledged business. Today, would you go into a business without creating a detailed business plan? Your new blog should be planned just as well.

As an exercise, write down the answers to the following:

Name 5 topics that you are passionate about
Name 3 skills in which you have an expert skill level
Ask friends and family to name 5 topics that they think you are passionate about
In each of your passions, pinpoint something that is missing, something that is causing you pain within your passion.

This will help you get your mojo into groove and help you find the niche, which will ultimately help you bring home the bacon.

Monetization

You have your niche, you have your plan, now add a simple way to monetize your blog. PalTip is a simple WordPress plugin that will save you hours upon hours in affiliate back-office link building and sign-ups.

How did you find your niche? Share with us your tips on finding your niche.

Curating Content – Tips and Tools

Posted on July 9, 2012 by shari

How, What, and When of Curating Content

Curating content, when done properly and on a regular basis can boost your SEO, your readership, and your bottom-line!

What is it?

Curating content is when you gather content from an array of sources and then publish it in an organized fashion.
There are many ways to curate content. Excellent examples of sites that exclusively curate content are Pinterest, Alltop, and Digg.

As bloggers, part of our daily routine is to read numerous articles and other blogs in our niche as research and insight to our own blogs. Use them! Collect them in a Google document as you find them, organized by topic. Then, once a week, write an intro to your curated post and publish your “favorites” about a particular topic.

Why curating content is great for your blog:

You have more to post about
Meet new bloggers and build relationships with them.
It’s great for your SEO

Content Curation Tools

To make life even easier, there are great tools to make content curation even easier. Some of our favorite tools are:

Paper.li
Storify
Pinterest
Scoop.it

If you are looking for more tools, check out this amazing list: Comparison of Curation Platforms from SocialCaompare.com
Tips:

Always give credit where credit is due! Thank content creators!
Focus on the best content for your audience and your niche.
Do not just copy and paste somebody else’s blog post or article – Add a reference to the post and a link.
Introduce each item that you are including in your post with your own comments and opinions.
Keep your content keyword-rich. Optimize the content to make it easy for your audience to find it.
Blast your curated content – share it with those who are mentioned in your post.

Share your curated content with us!

Home Office Design

Posted on July 4, 2012 by shari

Some people who work from a home office just set their laptop on the dining room table and get to work. This isn’t the best possible environment, nor is it the ergonomically correct way to do it.

More and more small businesses are cutting back expenses and moving out of rented office space and into the spare bedroom of their homes. Working from home has many benefits including a more productive workday for some. If you have worked from home or you’re considering it, pay a lot of attention to how you set up your new environment.

New Office Space

Although you are opening your office in your home, consider the space that you are working with as you would consider a space you would be renting out. Pay attention to the space available to you and think out how the space will work for you best. If necessary, enlist the help of a friend or a professional home

Ask yourself a few questions before you rush out and start outfitting your new home office:

What will you be doing in the office?
What time of day or night will you be working there?
Are clients going to be visiting the office?
What do you need to store?
What equipment do you need?

Clear out anything that you don’t need, and get a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Use a neutral color so that it won’t be a distraction for you during your day. When choosing the room, make sure that you have enough natural light during the day and proper lighting \night-time work. Remember the lighting will be very different in the winter time. Reflected light often looks more natural than direct light, so look for fixtures that allow light to reflect. Halogen looks very natural, but halogen uses a lot of electricity and the bulbs are quite sensitive.

You can find hundreds of design ideas and layouts online at HGTV, House to Home, and Houzz.com.

Some equipment that most home offices will require

Computer: laptop/desktop, probably both!
Phone line and hands-free telephone,
Software (office/graphic/design/CMS),
Lockable filing system (if you have sensitive information or curious children)
A printer with scanner and fax built in,
Desk organizers,
Stationary, paper, pencils, notebooks
White board – love it!

Sitting at the dining room table might be good for a couple of days, but you don’t want to cause future back problems. A proper ergonomic office chair is needed in every office, whether at home or not.

Here are some of our favorite chairs:

Great mesh-back chair

Safco Spry Task Chair – Black

Classic alday task chair

Have you recently moved or opened a new home office? Please share your tips, and send us some pics of your fabulous work space.

Summer Blogging Blues – Use it to Your Advantage

Posted on July 2, 2012 by shari

Summer Blogging

While I was researching summer blogging for a post, it was very clear that I am not the only one that is writing about summer blogging. It was noticeable that they were not writing about what I thought they were; many bloggers, big and small, are notifying their readers that the flow of posts are going to be slowing down over the summer months.

I was thinking this is great that people are taking a break from work and relaxing, and then I thought – great – this is the time to pull my blog up in ratings!

I searched 4 or 5 popular niches, and came up with almost the same results, here are some examples:

“Hey everyone! Sorry about not posting yesterday. Summer is starting here.”
“Summer Blogging. I know my blogging has been a bit lax lately. Unfortunately, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
“ I don’t know about you, but summers get crazy for me.”
“That’s right. I am taking a summer off from blogging.”

Don’t Join Them

Don’t join them. Be the source of fresh new content for your niche even during the summer months. Believe me, your readers are out there. Today, very few blog-reading citizens of the world turn off their connectivity for more than a day or so – if that. Therefore, while other bloggers are sliding down that big slide with their children, nephews, nieces, and cousins, you will be posting great summer-related blogs.

Blog Tip – Relevant Content

Summer time blogging is the time to use hot keywords. Whether you write about technology and gadgets or baby supplies and new parenthood there are summer topics to be tackled!

What are you going to be blogging about this summer? Do some research to see where others have left off and you can pull their readers in to your blog.

Happy summer!

7 Tips for Writing Great Product Reviews that People Will Read

Posted on June 27, 2012 by shari

Writing Product Reviews

Who doesn’t read a blog review about that fabulously needed item prior to actually purchasing it? You find hundreds of them, but what makes you read the whole product review? How is that product review different from the others? I will tell you. They had you in mind when they were writing it.

Know Your Reader

That’s it. That is probably the best piece of advice that you can get from anybody about writing product reviews. When you are writing a product review, remember who you are writing it for. Use the language that they will understand, and the style that they have grown accustomed to. For example, if you are writing about baby products the style and the language will be different than if you are writing about the latest tech gadget that everyone needs to have. What do they want to know about the product? Give it to them.

Personal Experience

Nothing says more than a short personal experience story surrounding the product you are reviewing. Take a look back at what we mentioned in our post about HSN and what you can learn from them. They are telling a story! When you are telling your product story, make sure that you show true interest. You might believe in the product, but now you have to convince your readers that you believe in the product. This is not always as easy as it sounds. I wouldn’t recommend you write:

“Wow! I use this weed hacker in my garden and it works; you should buy it!”

Be Honest

Trust

Nothing is perfect. Have you ever read those reviews where everything, but everything, about the product is perfect? You know better than that; some small feature might not be great, or the price might be very high (but you can say it is worth the money – if it is), or it doesn’t come in a wide range of colors etc.… When you add the pros and the CONS your automatically become creditable. Yes, you get clout for being honest.

Images

One picture is worth a thousand words. Use great quality images. If you are taking some of the images yourself for the post, that’s fine. Just make sure that you have proper lighting and that the image is clear. Always include images of the product from the manufacturer; they should have a bank of high quality images that you can use.

Disclosure

If you have received the item that you are reviewing from the manufacturer or another source in exchange for reviewing it, make sure that you have a disclosure in your review and a general disclosure on your site.

Summary and Conclusions

You have written your intro, told your honest personal story, included pictures or a video , pointed out key features, and explained the pros and cons. Now give them that all in one line!

Your Blog is No Place for Spelling Bloopers

Posted on June 25, 2012 by shari

Spelling Tips

You invest in your blog every day, finding great topics, products to review, photos to show, brands to promote, and advertisers to buy property. You write posts on a daily basis. Are you making sure that your blog is error-free? Your blog should not be the star in the next “Spelling Bloopers” YouTube video!

Poorly Written Content Has Side Effects:

You have probably less than 8 seconds to grab and retain the reader’s attention. If your reader has to slow down for spelling and grammatical errors, you lose them.
Missed opportunities – If you’re looking for brands to work with, they will not be knocking on your door unless your content is perfect.
Trust – Readers trust writing that looks professional.

Damage Control Tips

Proofread!
Hire an editor/proofreader or ask your neighbor who has written three bestselling novels to go over your post.
Update the rules in your spell check. Use a word processor with a good spelling and grammar check, but remember that it will miss certain types of mistakes.)
Proofread and edit again before posting.

Great Sites for Grammar and Spelling Tips:

Invest in yourself, purchase a spelling and grammar guide book like this one

Grammatically Correct: The Essential Guide to Spelling, Style, Usage, Grammar, and Punctuation [Kindle Edition]

Blogger’s Poll

I proofread and edit my posts before posting.
I don’t always proofread or edit my posts before posting.
I write; I post. That’s it.
I have an editor.