Guest Blogging How-To: Landing a High Profile Guest Blogging Gig

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In Wednesday's blog post, I talked about "How to Find Guest Blogging Opportunities" -- but the resource I mentioned, MyBlogGuest, focuses on middle Pagerank sites. What if you're looking for the big time? Today's blog post is about how to get a post published on a high profile blog.

High profile guest blog posts are the holy grail of guest blogging. Sure, you can blog for small blogs all day long, but that won't have nearly the impact of landing just one high profile guest blog post.

So how do you land these high profile guest blog posts?

Make Your Own Site Top-Notch
When someone lets you guest blog for their site, they're implicitly endorsing you. They're not going to do that unless your own website is truly top notch.

In other words, make sure the content on your resume writing business website provides immense value. Make sure your design looks highly professional.

Make sure someone who sees your blog will think of you as an authority and would want to partner with you.

Look for Sites That Have Accepted Guest Posts In the Past
If a site has never accepted a guest post in its history, you might have a hard time convincing them to accept yours. On the other hand, if they've been consistently publishing one or two posts by other authors every month, you might have a very good chance.

One simple way to figure out whether or not a site accepts guest posts is to type in [site:urlname.com "guest post"] in Google. This will bring up all entries that have the words "guest post" on a specific site. If there are no results, try a few more queries like "guest author."

If you can't find any guest blog posts, it's best to focus on a different site.

Start Building a Connection
While you can just approach a blog site owner out of the blue, it's often better to try to build a connection first.

Start commenting on their blog for at least a month before you want to request a guest blog post. Answer their questions and aim to become an active member of their community. Contribute.

Do the same with Twitter. Retweet things that they tweeted. @reply to them when they ask a question.

Get yourself on their radar.

Landing the Guest Blog Invitation
Finally, send them a short email outlining your proposal.

Try to come up with three topics that you think their audience will love. Tailor each request to the blog specifically. Come up with topics you think their specific audience would benefit from.

Let them know that it's easy to publish your article and that it won't be republished anywhere else. All you ask for is a link back to your website.

Remember that blog authors need content as much as you want to get content published. By giving them a high quality blog post, you're saving them as much as a day by not having to write their own content.

What you're proposing is a win/win, as long as you have enough trust and quality.

That's how to land high profile guest blog posts!

Bonus: Read this great blog post about what a blog owner is looking for in guest posts (and some great additional tips)

Why Resume Writers Should Consider Guest Blogging

On last month's BeAResumeWriter.com teleseminar, "Using Content to Capture New Career Clients," I talked about the idea of "Write where the people are."

In looking at my blog statistics today, I've had more than 74,000 pageviews on my blog since I started it … but many of the resume writers I talk to who have blogs have much less traffic. If your blog doesn't get much traffic (visitors to your blog), it can feel like you're shouting in the woods. No one is listening. The concept of guest blogging is taking that message to the streets -- specifically, the corner of a really big city. Go to where the people are, and share your message.

One way to do that is through guest blogging. There are several advantages to guest blogging -- as I mentioned, it's a great way to drive traffic to your blog or website. It's also a good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactic. Finally, it can also help strengthen your brand as a resume writer.

Guest Blogging Helps Position You as an Expert
Not all guest blogging opportunities are created equal. While my general feeling is that you should consider any and all guest blogging offers, some opportunities will prove more fruitful than others (in terms of visibility and traffic). Others might not have a large volume of blog visitors, but can help boost your credibility.

You also need to consider the quality of the target blog. Here’s why: presumably you’re going to put a bit of work into writing a top-quality blog post. You’re going to focus on providing value and benefit to the blog's readers. If that post is then placed on a blog that doesn’t have a good reputation -- or a blog that really doesn’t fit your target market -- then you may be doing yourself a disservice.

Instead, work hard to earn guest blogging opportunities for top rated blogs that fit your niche. You’ll be able to reach people who are actually interested in your information and build your brand. Aim for quality over quantity.

Consistency Is Key
While your guest post content will differ based on the purpose and mission of the blog, it’s also important for your voice and style to remain consistent. Part of building a strong brand as a resume writer is helping your readers recognize you immediately. Your voice and writing style can help make your brand memorable. It boosts awareness.

For example, if you have a no-holds-barred style that likes to stir the pot and create controversy, that same style should remain consistent -- regardless of where you’re blogging. The look and feel of your blog post will ideally remain consistent, too. If you regularly include text boxes with side notes on your own blog, then include them in your guest posts too. Be consistent.

Don’t Just Stop at Posting
Once you have published a guest post on a notable site, start marketing the heck out of it. Link to it on your social networking sites (Facebook business page, Twitter, LinkedIn -- even Pinterest!). Send a snippet and a link to it in your email newsletter. Share a link to it on your own blog too.

Guest blogging can be fun and it can certainly be an effective tool to drive traffic to your resume writing business website. However, the strongest reason to pursue guest blogging opportunities may be to build your brand.

If you want to learn more about content marketing (including using blogging to build your resume writing business), check out the "Using Content to Capture New Career Clients" teleseminar recording.

Guest Blogging How-To: How to Make Your Post "Most Read"

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This is the third entry in this week's series, "Guest Blogging How-To" and it focuses on how to write a killer blog post that will get people to visit your site, generate social media traffic (shares, tweets, likes), and that will generate repeat invitations from the blog owner.

So how do you make a guest blog post the "most read"?

Get to Know The Blog and Audience
Start by reading the blog you want to guest post on -- get a sense for who their audience is and what kind of style the blog owner has. Also, check for other guest posts. An owner who has allowed other authors to guest post in the past will be more likely to allow future guest posters.

Who tends to read their blog? What kind of attitude do writers on this site have? What kinds of topics do they address? Is there a common train of thought prevalent on the site?

Read through the comments of past posts. Get a sense for what kind of questions people have and what kinds of posts they tend to respond to.

Try to get a handle on what kind of material people like. Is it step-by-step guides? Do they like success stories? Perhaps they have one specific problem that they want to resolve?

Figure Out the "WIIFM"
Before writing your blog post, figure out the "what's in it for me" (WIIFM) that users should walk away from your post with.

Should they understand a certain concept better? Should they know how to do something that they didn't know before? In what direct way will your content impact their lives?

Then begin your article by telling them this "WIIFM" statement. Make it hard-hitting and compelling and really get them excited about your content before you deliver it.

Add Personality, Share Your Experience
The best blog posts are those where the writer really shares his or her experience. Don't try to come off as a stand-offish "professional voice." Instead, really add your personality to the mix. (Want to see examples of this? Check out blog posts by Julie Walraven or Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter.)

In addition to making your content land better, this also does one other thing. The more personality you have in your writing, the more curious people will be about you. At the end of the article, that makes it more likely for them to click on your link.

Sit On It
After writing your blog post, let it sit or a few hours or preferably a few days before sending it in for publication. (Make sure you know the deadline given to you by the blog owner, though!)

By going over it a second time, you'll often catch spelling mistakes or be able to reword your sentences in a more powerful way.

In other words, give it your all and try to make it perfect before sending it off.

Writing a top-notch guest blog post takes a lot of effort. You'll have to refine and refine the post, as well as pour your heart and soul into it if you want it to make an impact. Your reward will be an increase in targeted traffic to your own blog or resume writing business website.

Tomorrow: "What To Write In Your Guest Post"

Guest Blogging Versus Other Methods For Getting Traffic To Your Resume Writing Business Website

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After writing last week's series about guest blogging, I got even MORE emails from resume writers wanting to know more about guest blogging. In today's blog post, I'll answer one common theme:

"How does guest blogging stack up against other methods to get visitors (traffic) to my resume writing business website?"

Guest Blogging versus Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Many resume writers are familiar with "paying" for traffic (visitors) to their website, using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising -- like using Google's AdWords or Facebook ads or similar services.

Guest blogging usually precedes PPC. They aren't mutually exclusive. Most resume writers use blogging to drive "free" traffic to their resume writing business website, while PPC ads are "paid" traffic.

In order to succeed in paid advertising, you need to have a very streamlined conversion funnel. (It needs to be clear how prospects can become resume clients; otherwise, you're driving visitors to your site, but not turning them into clients.) In other words, you need to know that for every $1 you spend on PPC, you're earning $1.20 or more back from the lifetime value of that customer -- even if you lose money for the first few weeks or months. Otherwise, paid advertising can quickly consume a lot of your money.

Most guest blog posts won't get you as much traffic as PPC. It won't be as consistent either. (You'll likely get an initial surge of traffic, and then it will fall off.) However, the traffic you'll get will be targeted and -- most important, it's free.

One great strategy is to use guest blog posting to fine-tune your funnel and make sure you can convert before you move onto paid traffic methods.

Guest Blogging versus Article Marketing
This is one of those rare cases where there's a clear winner. There's just no question about it: guest blogging beats article marketing, hands down.

Guest blogging can get you on some of the top blogs in the industry. It'll help build your reputation and send real people to your site. As I mentioned in my "Using Content to Capture New Career Clients," the advantage of guest blogging is "Go where the people are." If you guest post on a popular blog, you're going where the people are (and you know what kind of people they are!). Article directory sites can draw a lot of traffic, but it's not targeted traffic. (And even when your articles are reposted, they're not always on related sites. I've found my careers-oriented articles posted on all kinds of irrelevant blogs.)

Article marketing will get you into article directories and perhaps a few small, low-authority fringe sites.

Guest blogging will help you build massive PageRank, while article marketing won't do much for your PageRank at all.

If you're going to go through the trouble of writing articles, you might as well do it right and go the guest blogging route.

Guest Blogging versus SEO
Should you focus your attention on SEO or on guest blogging? The best answer is to make guest blogging part of your SEO strategy.

It's true that guest blogging may not be the fastest way to build backlinks. However, the guest blog post you write will bring in real traffic, while the links you generate purely for SEO probably won't bring you much traffic at all.

This real traffic could result in both sales and additional backlinks. Furthermore, people often underestimate Google's ability to figure out what a real backlink is.

In short, you don't have to make guest blog posting your exclusive tactic. Use it as part of your SEO strategy to bring in real visitors to your resume writing business website.

Guest Blogging for PageRank

You may have heard of the term "PageRank" as a measure of the popularity of a particular website. PageRank is an algorithm (named after Larry Page) and used by Google to measure the "status" of a website based on links, especially links from other sites deemed to be "important."

The higher your PageRank, the more prominence given to your site in organic search engine results. Guest blogging (as outlined in last week's "Guest Blogging How-To" series) can be a great way to build your website or blog's PageRank.

You can check the PageRank of a blog or website using this tool:

Check Page Rank of your Web site pages instantly:

This page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

How do you get PageRank using guest blogging?

The Easiest Method To Boost Your Blog's PageRank
The easiest method to get PR 2 to PR 4 guest blogging backlinks is to use MyBlogGuest. (I talked about them on Day 2 of the series, in a post on "Finding Blogs Seeking Guest Bloggers.")

In short, MyBlogGuest is a free forum where webmasters who want guest bloggers go to look for guest bloggers. Guest bloggers who want to write for other people also use the site to find sites to blog on.

Check the PageRank of the sites seeking guest bloggers before contacting the webmaster. Also take a look at the number of other links the site is linking to. Assess the level of quality of the content. Is this a site you want to be associated with?

With PageRank-oriented guest blogging, you'll be playing a numbers game. Instead of always going for quality, sometimes you just want to get as many PR2 and PR3 links as possible.

Systematize It!
The bottleneck for generating medium PageRank links from guest blogging won't be a lack of webmasters who'll let you guest blog for them. Instead, the bottleneck will most likely be your production capacity -- how many blog posts you can produce.

It's not at all unlikely that you could get as many as 10 webmasters to agree to let you guest blog for them every week. That's 40 PR 2 to PR 4 links every month. Keep that up for a few months and your PageRank will skyrocket.

However, you'll have a tough time keeping up with that kind of volume unless you're dedicating yourself just to guest blogging.

It's not just the writing of articles. It's also continually browsing MyBlogGuest for new opportunities. It's pitching your site. It's keeping track of who's replied and who hasn't. It's writing the actual content. It's then tracking all your pieces of content to make sure the site owner actually put it up.

Instead of juggling all this work, systematize it. Create a list of all the active "connections" you have with the other site owners. Make notes about who you've contacted and where you are in the process of getting linked to.

Guest blogging for PageRank is all about systematizing the process of getting moderate and occasionally high PageRank links.

Guest Blogging How-To: Finding Blogs Seeking Guest Bloggers

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This is the second installment in this week's series on guest blogging. You can read yesterday's post here: "Guest Blogging How-To: Five Days to More Traffic and Higher Visibility"

One of the most frequent questions I get about guest blogging is:
"How Do I Find Guest Blogging Opportunities?"

The easiest way is to contact the owner of a blog that you already read. That way, you're familiar with the content and style ... and, if you've been commenting on the blog, the owner might even recognize your name when you email him or her!

If you are looking to widen your audience for guest blog posts, however, consider a site like MyBlogGuest.

MyBlogGuest is the largest marketplace for guest bloggers to meet with people who want guest posts. Landing a guest blogging gig on this site is extremely simple: just contact a blogger who is looking for the kind of topics you write about, make a pitch, and you're done. Best of all -- it's free!

Keep in mind that MyBlogGuest is best for landing moderate PageRank or moderate traffic sites. High profile blogs like TechCrunch or LifeHacker simply aren't on MyBlogGuest. Instead, to land first and second tier blogs, you should go directly to the blog's author and make your pitch.

However, for moderate rankings and PageRank sites, there's nothing easier than MyBlogGuest.

The "Looking for a Guest Author" Section

Start in this section. This is where bloggers who want to look for guest authors go to advertise. Start with the "Business and Edu" section.

Look at all the listings by webmasters. Pick out the ones that make sense for you, based on what your site is about, their site's traffic, and their site's PageRank.

Contact them and make your pitch. If you have a good site and a good pitch, chances are you'll get the gig!

Use the "Search" Function

Begin by selecting a sub-category. You can start with the "Business and Edu" category and then use search terms, like "Career" "Jobs" "Resume" and "CV" to narrow it down. Click through and look at the site and see what kind of blog posts they publish.

The "Looking for a Blog" Section
This section is where you, the guest blogger, can post your own ad. The best way to get a high volume of writing requests is to post in this section, as well as reply to posts in the "looking for a guest author" section.

Look through other people's posts and see what catches your eye. Write your post in a manner that's both attention catching and informative.

The Articles Gallery
The articles gallery is where you can post your own pre-written articles for other webmasters to use. All they need to do is attribute the article to you in the signature.

This is different than article directories, in that each article can only be used once. Once a webmaster puts it on their site, the article is removed by the articles gallery. There are no duplicate content issues.

The best way to use MyBlogGuest, as with any other community, is to become an active member and contribute. Build your reputation and use the site to rack up lots of backlinks to your own resume blog.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post: "How to Make Your Post 'Most Read'"

Guest Blogging How-To: Five Days to More Traffic and Higher Visibility

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Earlier this month, I wrote about "Why Resume Writers Should Consider Guest Blogging" -- and I got several emails from readers wanting more information. So this week, I'm putting together a five-part series on guest blogging.

With so many different possible ways to promote your resume writing business competing for your attention, it can sometimes be tough to figure out exactly which techniques to implement and what to skip. Guest blogging is one of the most powerful marketing tactics out there. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider this tactic in promoting your business.

Targeted Traffic
When you write a guest post on someone else's blog, anyone who clicks through to your site is going to be highly targeted traffic. Writing a post for another high traffic website is all it takes to get a flood of high quality web traffic coming your way.

I talked in my "Using Content to Capture Career Clients" teleseminar about how posting on other people's blogs (where your ideal clients hang out) can be a great way to get visitors to your site. The key is finding blogs that your target clients already read.

PageRank and SEO
Getting backlinks from guest blogging checks off just about every item on a "SEO" checklist: The links are targeted. They're from real sites. They're (often) in-context links. You can control the anchor text. And if you're writing for high traffic blogs, the links will naturally have both PageRank and authority.

Many sites have gotten higher Pagerank rankings purely by getting dozens -- if not hundreds -- of backlinks through guest blogging.

Building Relationships in the Industry
Having relationships in the careers industry will help you advance your resume writing business in many different ways. When you're launching a new resume service (LinkedIn profile writing, anyone?)  and need bloggers to write about it, who do you turn to? The people you have relationships with.

When you're looking for referrals to the media, who do you turn to? The people you have relationships with.

Relationships, relationships, relationships. Guest posting helps build relationships. If you provide something valuable for their audience, they'll be eternally grateful. You can write for other resume writers -- or for affiliated career bloggers (recruiters, HR professionals, association websites, etc.).

Increase Your Reputation
Another way guest blogging can help is by increasing your reputation. This is especially the case in the careers industry, which is like a "big small town" in many ways.

Let's say someone frequents four different career blogs. On all four blogs, they see guest posts by you. Just the fact that you're all over the different websites in the careers industry is going to do a lot for building your reputation.

When you guest blog post on someone else's site, that's an implicit endorsement from them. It also gets you more exposure, which builds credibility.

Helps You Explore Different Ideas
Guest blog posting also helps you expand your own ideas.

If you're invited to guest post for a Fortune 500 company on job search techniques, that's going to require a different line of thought than writing for a small association blog.

When you guest post, you have to stretch your ideas, concepts, and identity to bring value to people who are slightly different than your typical market. This helps you develop and grow your ideas and concepts.

These are five of the main benefits of guest blogging. It's one of the highest ROI activities any resume writer who regularly blogs could take on.

Coming up in this week's series:
Part II: How to Find Guest Blogging Opportunities
Part III: How to Make Your Post "Most Read"
Part IV: What To Write In Your Guest Post
Part V: Landing a High Profile Guest Blogging Gig

Blogging Basics for Resume Writers

Starting a career-related blog can be a great way to increase your profile as a careers industry expert, allowing you to attract new clients and driving traffic to your website. However, deciding to start a blog is a commitment. The more you publish, the more you'll get out of your blog. Here are some things to think about as you consider publishing a blog.

Where Most Resume Writers Go Wrong With Their Blog
When you're blogging, you're building your brand (or destroying it, in some unfortunate cases). Having a social media presence online is important for the majority of resume writers, since more and more resume prospects find their resume writer through online sources (it's second only to referrals as the source of new business for most resume writers). You can use your blog to build your social media following (Twitter, Facebook Business Page, LinkedIn, etc.) and you can also use your social media following to increase readership of your blog.

To get the most out of your blog, you'll need to deliver a certain number of blog posts per week (usually a minimum of two), and you should also consider finding guest blogging opportunities (where you can blog elsewhere and link back to your main blog). Blogging "for fun" is different than blogging to build your resume writing business. Don't confuse the two. It's fine to have a personal blog (I'm really enjoying resume writer Barbara Safani's "Across the 59th Street Bridge and Back" blog), but a personal blog has different objectives than a professional blog. You can tie in personal experiences on your career blog (Julie Walraven does this quite well, as does Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter), but make sure there is a lesson to be shared when you do!

Make Blogging Part of Your Routine

This is the part I have the most difficulty with. All the blogging experts say you should be consistent with your blogging. They say that it's better to to write one post per week — every Friday, for example — than to blog haphazardly. More power to you if you can do that! I just can't. Sometimes I get in the mood to blog and sometimes, it's at the bottom of a lengthy to-do list.

The good news is, blogging is something you can do anytime — in the morning before work, on your lunch hour, after work and on the weekends. You can even write your blog posts in advance and schedule them to post. (I should do this.)

Like writing resumes, blogging is a real business when you start pursuing it for financial reasons. Yes, it gives you much in terms of happiness — but when you’re making money doing something you love, it’s very rewarding.

And, as I mentioned earlier, your blog can also establish you as a leader in the career services industry. One thing that’s important is that you make sure that you love writing about career industry topics. You should want to wake up every day, eager to get to your computer. Don't start a blog because you feel like you "have to" — do it because you "want to."

If you dread it because it bores you or it’s depressing, then you won’t help your readers and the blog won’t "work" for you.

Make a list of possible blog topics before you start. If you can't come up with at least 10 ideas, don't start until you do. You can set an entire editorial calendar for your blog where you choose which topics are presented to your readers. You also get to pick the tone for the blog pieces.

Developing a Relationship With Your Blog's Readers
Having a relationship with your readers means they value your blog and they share the link to it with other people. You want that type of connection because as a professional, the traffic and branding that you gain will be priceless.

When blogs have a loyal readership, they enjoy a fantastic word of mouth traffic flow. While many bloggers are out there buying links back to their site and paying people to help them get traffic, you can do it all for free.

First, pick topics your readers want to know about. Part of your job in relationship building is to listen to your audience and meet their needs. There are many ways you can do this.

Do some preliminary keyword research to find out what people want to know in your niche. Visit some of the job search-related groups on LinkedIn and see what people are talking about.

This is known as a sentence starter — and it gives you some insight into what type of blog post you might want to do, such as:

• If someone is unemployed for a long period of time, how can they get back in the workforce?
• How to find a job that allows telecommuting
• Top three reasons you may not be getting called for interviews.

You can also simply invite your readers to submit questions to you. You can do this on your email autoresponder opt-in form, or have a special contact form on your blog where people can engage with you that way. Or you can ask them to post their questions in the Comments section under each post.

Whenever someone emails you with a question, you can assume there are more people out there who are wondering the same thing. Use those questions as fodder for your blog topics.

When you start blogging about all of these things, it makes the audience feel like you’ve really got your finger on the pulse of the marketplace — like you have great instincts.

Next, write in a highly conversational style and end each blog with an invitation to connect. People need to feel like you’re speaking just to them.

When you write, make sure it’s conversational and not stuffy like you’d write for a professional publication. If you make a video blog, look right in the camera and be casual and relaxed, not stuff and nervous.

When you end a blog post, you can ask a question or invite people to share their own $0.02 about the topic in the comments. Make sure that whatever comment system you’re using, it’s easy to find — because some are almost hidden.

Participate in the conversation that goes on in your blog comments. If people are kind enough to take you up on your invitation, then make an effort to have a dialogue with them.

Thank them for their comment, call them by name, and open up a discussion about what they had to say.

Making Money From Your Blog
While there are several ways to monetize your blog, the easiest — and most common way — is to turn blog readers into resume clients. This can happen naturally as they recognize your expertise as a career industry professional (be sure to give a "call to action" on individual blog posts or on your page so they know how to get started working with you), or you can invite them to opt-in to your email list, where you can share more resources, and convert them from a prospect into a client.

Speaking of lists, build a list from your blog so that whenever you have a new blog post, you can notify people about it. Also have an RSS system set up for people who use RSS feed readers to get notified of your new content.

Whenever you have a list, it gives you a certain amount of power — the power to instantly communicate with your target audience when you are selling or promoting your resume services and related products (webinars, teleseminars, workshops, membership programs, and other information products).

Another easy way to derive revenue is using Google AdSense. You can put different sized ad banners on your blog, from buttons to skyscraper ads. You can include images or go with just text. Don't expect to get rich from AdSense, though.

You can also sell ad space directly on your blog. You can arrange a specific area of your blog for ad space that people rent on a monthly basis, paying the ad revenue to you directly. If you go this route, make sure you have specifics in place to control what kinds of ads can get placed on your blog — all the way down to the colors and whether animation is allowed on it, if you want.

One thing you have to remember whenever you place any ads on your blog is that yes, it gives you some money when people leave your site for somewhere else – but in leaving, it also means someone else is capturing their name and email address and selling something to them, not you.

Promote products as an affiliate. You can sign up as an Amazon Associate and promote anything they sell there that they offer a commission on. Digital products can be found at sites like ClickBank.com. You can sign up for free and get a hoplink (affiliate link) where you earn around 50% for each sale.

Create your own products and sell them from your blog. You don’t have to promote other people’s stuff. Why not create an info product (ebook, video, or audio course) and teach something you blog about in more depth — or in a more comprehensive manner?

Offer your resume services from your blog. Coaching is also something you can offer. Many people pay top dollar for one-on-one coaching sessions via Skype or even email!

Blogging can be a very fun and very profitable venture if you approach it correctly. Don’t make the mistake of flying by the seat of your pants. If you do this, your blog will be scattered with topics, have no set monetization plan, and you’ll end up unhappy with the effort you’ve put in.

With proper planning and enthusiasm, you'll attract a steady stream of readers (prospective clients!) and new business. In fact, you might be the one putting out feelers for a professional blogger to come onboard and help you with your content needs!

Guest Blogging How-To: What to Write In Your Guest Post

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This is an issue that can stump you while you're blogging -- whether for your own blog or when guest blogging. When you're stuck in the "I don't know what to write" trap, here are some ideas to get you started.

Tips Articles
Guest posts with a specific number of tips often do very well. For example:

• 7 Tips for Improving Your LinkedIn Profile
• 12 Things NOT to Include On Your Resume
• 5 Ways to Get Your Resume In Front of Hiring Decision-Makers

Make sure you pick a specific number of tips and place it in the title. Odd numbers seem to work better than even numbers.

How-To
How-to titles are another popular blog post topic. For example:

• "How to Make Sure Your Finance Resume Gets Read"
• "How to Write an Effective LinkedIn Headline"
• "How to Get a $10,000 Raise When You Interview For Your Next Job"

Ask yourself, "What does my target market want to know?" Then write a "how to" for them.

Pitfalls and Mistakes
Talk about the common pitfalls and mistakes people make when jobseekeing. For example:

"The Seven Deadly Mistakes Career Changers Make"
"The #1 Mistake New Graduates Make in Their Job Search"
"3 Common Pitfalls of Networking for a New Job Online"

Tell a Story
Telling a story is a great way to attract an audience and communicate a message. (As a resume writer, you already knew that!)

One of the most famous direct response ads in history had this headline:
"They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano, But When I Started to Play..."

The piece then went on to tell the story of how nobody thought the main character could play -- and were then shocked when he did.

Use stories to invoke emotions, convey a point, and connect with your audience.

Share a Success
If you helped a jobseeker negotiate a $10,000 pay increase with his new job, share how you did it. If you helped a client write a LinkedIn profile that drew dozens of calls from hiring managers and recruiters, tell what was in the profile. If your clients get interviews within a week of sending out their resume, tell their story.

People love to read success stories, especially if they're filled with nuggets they can use in their own lives.

Image Tutorials
One great way to bring real value to someone else's blog is to create an image tutorial for them. Creating image tutorials, which involves step-by-step pictures, takes quite a bit of effort. Most bloggers won't go through the trouble.

That's why if you're willing to do it, they'll be very grateful.

For example, if you're writing a tutorial about how a jobseeker can research a company using LinkedIn, use screen shots of the process.

Controversial Opinion
Finally, you can share a controversial opinion. Most people won't expect to read a blog post from a resume writer titled, "This Resume Writer Says You Don't Need a Resume." (Now, your strategies may end up showing that a resume isn't needed for some situations -- but is for others.)

If you're ever at a loss on what kind of guest blog post to write, try using one of these ideas.

Tomorrow: "Landing a High Profile Guest Blogging Gig"

How to Create A Content Strategy for Your Resume Writing Business

I love talking about content. My last two blog posts were focused on monetizing your content. Here's a post from last month about writing better content. But maybe I should back up a moment and talk about how resume writers can create a "content strategy."

Do you have a content strategy? Or are you just winging it? You post a blog post when you think of something to write about, and you might have three blog posts in a row, followed by a month of non-posting. Or you decide to engage in article marketing and write 4 or 5 articles for free article sites -- but the key to those sites is quantity. You need to write 10 or 20 or even 50 articles (over time is fine -- one a week is 52 a year!) if you're going to make it a significant source of traffic for your site.

What Is a Content Strategy?
A content strategy is exactly what it sounds like. It's a plan to create, organize, market, and maximize your content. You can plan a week in advance, a month, a quarter or even a year in advance. When you have a content strategy in place, the process of creating content for your blog or website becomes much easier. It's also easier to outsource it when you know exactly what you need.

Here are seven questions to ask yourself when creating your content strategy.

1. Where will you publish your content? 

Now this may seem like an obvious question -- on your blog or website, of course! However, you may also want to guest blog, publish on article marketing sites, and submit content to other newsletters or magazines. Think about where you want to publish your content. Then move onto the next question.

2. What types of content will you publish?

Blog posts? Articles? Reports? Downloads? That's the first question, and then you want to take a look at the formats or styles that your readers respond to. For example, maybe you find that lists are your reader's favorite articles or that they love downloadable checklists. When you know what they like, you can include it in your plan.

3. What's the goal or purpose for your content?

To have extremely effective content, you want it to have a goal or a purpose. For example, do you want to drive traffic to your website? Do you want prospective clients to email you their resume for a review? Do you want to promote an affiliate product? What about driving traffic to your opt-in page to build your mailing list? Create a purpose or goal for every piece of content you create.

4. When will you write your content?

Now that you know what you're going to publish, and you have a goal for it, it's time to schedule it. Some people write all their content at the beginning of the week or month. Others write a little bit every day. It's the same as writing resumes -- you'll find that you have a particular rhythm that works for you. There's no right or wrong way to do this, but you do want to schedule it so it gets done.

5. When will you publish/upload?

When will you publish your content? For example, will you write the content for the week on Monday and publish it on Tuesday? Blogs allow you to upload posts ahead of time and schedule them for publication. If you're using article marketing sites or have a website, then you'll want to schedule publishing time into your day. (It can be as simple as setting yourself a reminder alarm to upload your content.)

6. How can you maximize your content?

Next, plan how you can repurpose and reuse your content. For example, can you tweak the article and publish it in your newsletter? Can you share it on a social networking site? Can you collect articles and create a short report? Plan how you can use your article in other ways to make the most of your time and energy.

7. How will you market your content and use your content to market your business?

Finally, how will you make readers and prospects aware of your content? For example, will you link to it from Facebook? Publish it in your Twitter feed? Will you create a weekly wrap-up blog post or email and highlight your new articles for the week? The more people who are aware of your content, the more readers and traffic you'll have.

Once you get the hang of it, implementing your content plan to promote your resume writing business will be a quick and easy process.

Penelope Trunk Tells Resume Writers To Blog

To go along with my new gig as a guest blog author, I was researching some other blogs. When you type in "blogs for resume writers" in Google, basically you get a listing of resume writers who blog.

One post was by Penelope Trunk, who has established a fairly unique voice in the career blog community. The post was about how to edit your resume with the eye of a professional resume writer -- so naturally, that caught my attention. I scrolled down through the comments (thinking of posting one myself), but was stopped dead in my tracks by this comment by Margaret W on March 18, 2008:

Huh. I hired a professional to rewrite my resume a few years ago; it was a total disaster. It read like a template from CorporateSpeak 101, and was not appropriate for my skillset or for my industry. One can say that this was a cruddy resume writer because he didn't fully understand my goals. Or maybe I didn't communicate them well.

I finally landed a new position after I ditched the plastic resume and handled writing it myself. It also didn't hurt that I got the job through connections. I also got my subsequent (and current) job through connections, where the resume is something they're obliged to hand over to the HR drone for her files.

* * * * * *

Penelope responded:

This is a good time to say that the resume writing industry is sort of like the social worker industry — it's a real crap shoot who you get unless the person comes recommended from someone you trust.

Sidenote to resume professionals: You should blog. It's a way to establish credibility with an audience that is inherently weary of the industry.

So I thought I'd assemble a short list of career professional blogs I've compiled -- as a way of inspiring you to start your own blog.

• Keppie Careers (Miriam Salpeter)
  
• Career-Resumes (Peter Newfield)
• Blue Sky Resumes (Louise Fletcher)
• Resume Power (Kim Isaacs)
  
• Resume Edge (Darlene Zambruski)
• CollegeRecruiter.com

Are you a professional resume writer who blogs? E-mail me and I'll include your blog too.

I'm A Guest Author!

As you know, from time to time, I feature guest authors on this blog. Now I've been asked to be a guest author on another blog, Teena Rose's "Start, Operate, Profit!" blog for resume writers. I invite you to read my first post, where I select my "TOP 5" favorite posts from Teena's archive.

Teena's blog focuses primarily on start-up issues for new resume writers -- a natural, considering that she's the author of a book on the subject, "Starting a Home- or Office-Based Resume Business."

Teena also has a much stronger grasp of the ins-and-outs of online technology, and I'll be drawing on her expertise in the next few months to help my readers understand more about this, and how they can incorporate in search engine optimization and other techniques to help them generate new customers.

If you're a member of my E-List for new resume writers, you can expect that I will be asking for your help in the next few days to identify topics for future posts on Teena's blog.

How to Drive Traffic to Your Resume Website

Although I believe it is possible for a resume business to succeed without a website, an effective website that draws "significant" traffic (and significant can mean different things to different people), can help propel your business.

Generally, the more traffic you have, the more prospective clients you will have.

Here are five ways to drive traffic to your resume writing business website:

#1 Social media. Social media works quickly and if you have a large following on any of the social media sites (Twitter, Facebook), you can generate a ton of traffic to your website quickly. The key is to create attention-grabbing posts that arouse curiosity, make people laugh, or stir up a controversy. You want to generate click-throughs to your website.

Make the most of your social networking tactics and use technology to get the job done. For example, one StumbleUpon post can be integrated with both Facebook and Twitter profiles so you're making waves on all three social sites at once.

#2 Article marketing. Article marketing works well when you concentrate your efforts on quality article marketing sites with large audiences. One well written, informative article, rewritten a few times, and submitted to a handful of directories can generate the traffic you're looking for. Be sure to include a bio box that includes a call to action and a link to your website to motivate click-throughs.

#3 Blogging. Post on your own blog or be a guest blogger on a blog with a large number of subscribers. Like social networking, if you offer an informative, controversial or entertaining post, youíll have people clicking through to your website like mad. Of course, if you also promote this wonderful blog post(s) via social media, you can double your traffic results.

If you don't have your own blog, you can pay to be a featured career expert on Careerealism. It's not inexpensive ($149 for 3 months), but you can get significant traffic for your website from their links. (Here is resume expert's Dawn Rasmussen's blog post on Careerealism.)

#4 Video content. It's amazing how quickly a video can go viral. Like print content, videos that entertain, stir up a bit of controversy, or offer tremendous value cause a buzz. They're forwarded to friends and downloaded on laptops and mobile devices around the globe. A good video can generate all the traffic you need. Again, integrate a bit of social media to promote your video, blog about it too, and you can multiply your traffic results.

#5 Partnerships. Partnering with another business can work quite well to generate traffic fast. The key is to come up with a mutually beneficial agreement. Find people in the careers industry that are willing to work with you and help each other drive traffic. A partnership may include guest blogging on each others' websites, swapping advertisements, or even promoting one another in your e-newsletter.

Itís possible to drive a ton of traffic to your website fast. The trick is to have a plan in place, know your audience and your goals, and take action.

When Traffic is a Good Thing

Normally, when I think of "traffic," I think "bad!" Like, stuck in a traffic jam or having to navigate through the cars parked on both sides of the street for the neighborhood church's festival to get out of my neighborhood last weekend. Yes, in those cases -- traffic is bad.

But there is "good" traffic too -- as in traffic = visitors to your website.

Website traffic is -- for many business models -- the key to profits. The more traffic you have, the bigger your bottom line. This is particularly true for resume writing businesses that work with a national clientele. Whether you're launching a new product (perhaps a workbook touting "10 Top Interview Secrets") or just want a quick influx of cash (booked appointments!), sometimes you need tons of traffic quickly.

Here are five fast solutions to drive traffic to your resume writing business website.

1. Social media. Social media works quickly -- and if you have a large following on any of the social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), you can generate a ton of traffic to your website quickly. The key is to create attention-grabbing posts that arouse curiosity, make people laugh, or stir up a controversy. You want to generate click-throughs to your website.

Make the most of your social networking tactics and use technology to get the job done. For example, one StumbleUpon post can be integrated with both Facebook and Twitter profiles so you're making waves on all three social sites at once.

2. Blogging. Post on your own blog or be a guest blogger on a blog with a large number of subscribers. Like social networking, if you offer an informative, controversial, or entertaining post, you'll have people clicking through to your website like mad. Of course, if you also promote this wonderful blog post via social media, you can double your traffic results. (See tip #1.)

3. Article marketing. Article marketing works well when you concentrate your efforts on quality article marketing sites with large audiences. One well-written, informative article -- rewritten a few times, and submitted to a handful of directories -- can generate the traffic you're looking for. Be sure to include a bio box that includes a call to action and a link to your website to motivate click-throughs.

4. Video content. Video is one of the top traffic-driving sources online nowadays. It's amazing how quickly a video can go viral. Like print content, videos that entertain, stir up a bit of controversy, or offer tremendous value cause a buzz. They're forwarded to friends and downloaded on laptops and mobile devices around the globe. A good video can generate all the traffic you need. Again, integrate a bit of social media to promote your video, blog about it too, and you can multiply your traffic results. (The ability to do video is built into lots of tools nowadays. My favorite is the FlipCam -- which is no longer being made -- but I just discovered that my $150 Nikon Coolpix camera has built-in video ... it's not professional quality, but it would work for an online video -- especially one that you post on your blog.)

5. Partnerships. This strategy takes a little bit more work than the first four tips, but can yield significant traffic to your site. Partnering with a relevant or compatible business (career coaches, mental health counselors, real estate agents) can work quite well to generate traffic fast. The key is to come up with a mutually beneficial agreement. Find people in your industry that are willing to work with you and help each other drive traffic. A partnership may include guest blogging on each other's sites, swapping advertisements, or even promoting one another in your ezine. (If you are a generalist resume writer, partner with a resume specialist -- for example, someone who works with federal resumes or finance candidates, or IT specialists -- and swap content and traffic.)

For example, earlier this month, I partnered with Wendy Terwelp, who was promoting a "Rock Your Network®!" teleseminar training program for careers industry professionals. I contacted Wendy to see if she'd be interested in putting together a free preview call for resume writers. We launched the call about 10 days after I initially contacted her, and the 45-minute call was chock-full of great information about how to use social media in your careers industry business (both for yourself as well as for your clients). Wendy was able to reach 50+ careers industry professionals who listened to the call live (or the recording), and I was able to promote Resume Writers' Digest through her social media channels (her Facebook group and Twitter profile). It was a great partnership.

It is possible to drive a ton of traffic to your website fast. The trick is to have a plan in place, know your audience and your goals, and take action.

7 Ways to Get More Clients for Your Resume Writing Business

Clients are the lifeblood of a successful resume writing business. Without clients, there is no business! Here are seven tips for attracting clients. You probably know most of them, but it's a good reminder that if your appointment book isn't full, you can change that!

1. Tell Everyone You Know 
This may seem obvious, but you would be shocked to learn that some people you know probably don't know what you do. You want to get the word out to everyone you know, because they may know someone that needs you and tell them about you. Hand out business cards, share resources with them (the BeAResumeWriter.com Pass-Along Materials make excellent special reports that you can use as lead generation magnets), and post updates on your social media platforms about the work you're doing (and the people you've helped -- without identifying your clients directly). 

2. Get Involved
Being involved in your local community and online communities, both business and personal, will help you become a known entity. Use the strategy of "Give To Get" -- be helpful to others. Remember, jobseekers are hungry for information that will help them in their job search -- FEED THEM! Remember the Zig Ziglar quote: "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

3. Partner Up
A joint venture is a temporary partnership in which you join forces with someone who markets to your audience but who is not direct competition -- for example, a career coach. Partner up to host a free webinar teaching their clients something to solve one of their most burning problems (anything related to the job search is fair game -- LinkedIn is almost always an in-demand topic). They will promote the webinar to their clients and you'll teach it. You can give them a referral fee on any projects that result -- and, you can solidify a stronger referral relationship!

4. Be Social
Make all your profiles on social media compelling and informative. Post a good profile image that shows your face and eyes. It doesn't have to be a professional headshot, but it should be clear and show a good depiction of your personality. Join various groups online, consisting of both your audience and other resume writers (if you focus on a specific niche, colleagues can be a great source of new clients). Get to know people, help people, and let your profile speak for itself. Share information regularly -- become a resource people will depend on for careers content!

5. Build Your Reputation 
If your current client flow is slow, take time now to work on reputation building. The way you do this is participate in webinars, discussions, and even livestreams (Blab.im or Facebook Live), showing your professional knowledge about your careers industry niche and how you can help jobseekers. Write a book, blog, or guest blog and/or develop a freebie (lead magnet) to give away so you can build an email list. Content can help you capture new clients!

6. Optimize Your Website
Your website is the hub of all other activity. Ensure that it works on any device, that it loads fast, and that it is pleasing to the eye. Use keyword-rich titles, appropriate anchor text, and publish informative blog posts. Ensure that you have at least a Home page, About us page, Service page and a Contact page, and that there is no mistaking what it is you do when someone visits your website. (Refer to the "What To Write On Your Website" special report for more details.)

7. Be Your Own Client
I talk a lot about resume writers and the shoemaker's kids. (Referring to the old story about the shoemaker's kids being barefoot.) One of the best demonstrations of what you can do involves being a bright, shining light that shows the world what it is that you do. Your LinkedIn profile should be top-notch. Your "About Us" page on your website should tell a compelling story of you. If your personal communications are outstanding, prospective clients will see exactly how you can do the same for them.

If you're looking for a specific program to help fill your appointment book, the Earlybird registration and the 3-pay option for the next session of Get Clients Now end this Friday. (There are only 3 spots left too.)
Details here: Get Clients Now.

How to Grow Your Resume Business Through Crowdsourcing

With the death of my Dad earlier this month, I found myself facing a double-edged sword of having a crushing amount of responsibilities related to planning his funeral ... and a concurrent case of writer's block. It wasn't resumes that I was having trouble writing -- I had backed off of those in July when it was apparent his health was declining -- it was the August Pass-Along Materials package for BeAResumeWriter.com.

I had already decided in July what the topic for the content would be, and had outlined and written several sections of the report by the time he died. But every time I sat down to finish it, I was just stuck. I sent out an email to Bronze members to let them know what was going on -- and received wonderful, thoughtful, amazing responses from so many colleagues. The message was pretty consistent: Don't worry about the work. But I got my work ethic from my Dad ... so not worrying about finishing it was eating at me. The second consistent theme of the emails was: Let me know if I can do anything.

And that's what sparked an idea ... what if I crowdsourced ideas for the report content? Instead of relying on my own initiative and strengths -- which were sorely lacking at that point -- I would ask for help, in the form of crowdsourcing content for the report, which became the "Jobseeker's Guide to Leaving Your Job."

© FotolEdhar - Fotolia.com

What Is Crowdsourcing?
As defined by Wired Magazine, "Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to an undefined large group of people or community through an open call." In this case, I sent out a follow-up email with a link to a QuestionPro survey. Immediately after sending it out, I began to receive survey responses (and emails from folks letting me know they had taken the survey).

You'll also see this principle at work with resume writers. I wrote a blog post this month about whether you should "Like" another resume writer's Facebook business page. Asking colleagues to "Like" your page is an example of crowdsourcing. You'll often get people who immediately comply with your request. You're asking the masses to help you grow your resume writing business.

So How Do You Grow Your Resume Writing Business with Crowdsourcing?
First, think about the various ways you can grow your business. These include:

• Marketing
• Content
• Product development
• Website traffic
• Branding

Second, you'll want to think about your crowdsourcing resources. As you can see from the earlier examples, social networking and list-building are often the keys to success. The key part of "crowdsourcing" is crowd -- the more people you can reach, the easier it will be to pick up momentum quickly for your initiative. (You've seen on Facebook how word can spread across the country in a matter of minutes.)

Do you have a large network of friends and followers? Are you currently active on social networking sites? It doesn;t have to be Facebook. Social sites like Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube are very powerful too.

Third, consider your goals. What do you want to accomplish first? For example, do you need a lot of content for your website? Ask for submissions or guest blog posts from your friends and followers. Make it a contest and ask readers to vote on the best blog posts.

If you want to use the power of the crowd to develop your first information product, ask for input. Ask your jobseeking clients for their top 3 challenges in finding a great job.

The power of the crowd is immense. You can use it to grow your resume writing business in a number of ways. Instead of paying a product development team or hiring a focus group, you can now go directly to the source and ask your prospects to contribute. And it doesn't cost a thing. Consider your goals and your resources, then take action.

For me, I am immensely grateful to my colleagues who contributed their ideas and inspiration to complete the "Jobseeker's Guide to Leaving Your Job" Pass-Along Materials content.

Lessons From the 7-Step Product Creation Challenge Q&A Call

Yesterday, I hosted a Q&A call for participants in the "7-Step Product Creation Challenge" -- a self-guided program to help career industry professionals develop their first -- or NEXT -- information product.

Here are five tips that I shared on the Q&A call that may help you create your information product -- whether that's an ebook, tip sheet, membership program, webinar/teleseminar, live program, or self-study program for jobseekers.

The first tip is START WITH YOUR WHY. What is your motivation for creating an information product? The two biggest "whys" for resume writers and career coaches is usually one -- or both -- of two things. The first reason to create an information product is to generate passive income (and/or recurring revenue) in your business. For most resume writers, they are only making money when they are directly serving clients (1-to-1 work). An information product allows you to make money even while you're sleeping, while you're doing "family things" or even when you're serving clients!

Speaking of serving clients, that's the second reason you may be motivated to create an information product: A well-designed information product solves a problem for a jobseeker. Many resume writers who have developed their products did so because their clients had a need. Here are just a few examples:

• Michelle Dumas ("101 Before-and-After Resume Examples")
• Kristin Johnson ("LinkedIn Success Institute" -- yes, a training program is a type of information product!)
• Shauna Bryce ("Reference Checks, Reference Pages, and Letters of Recommendation for Lawyers and Law Students")
• Brenda Bernstein ("DIY -- Do It Yourself -- Resume Questionnaires")
• Lisa Rangel (multiple ebooks and recorded webinars)
• Norine Dagliano (ekm Guide ebooks)
• Laurie Berenson ("Job Search Jump-Start: 30-Day Challenge")
• Steven Bouchard ("Getting Started With LinkedIn")
• Tracy Cooper ("30 Day Challenge" for jobseekers)
• Donna Tucker ("Jobseekers' Guides")
• Pam Martin ("The Complete Guide to a Successful Job Search")
• Laurie Berenson ("8 Days to LinkedIn Success")

The second tip is START EASY AND CREATE OFTEN! Many career services professionals I talk to want to create something big, like a home study training program or a hardcopy book. Instead, if you're creating your first information product, start with something small -- a tip sheet, an ebook, or a teleseminar. Once you've created one, you'll find it easier to do another one!

But DON'T REINVENT THE WHEEL. That's tip number three. Do you already have something done that you can re-use? Look through your email inbox and see what questions you answer over and over again for clients. Then take the content that you've already sent to clients (copy-and-paste from your emails!) and do something with it! And don't forget that Pass-Along Materials are ready-to-go content you can put to work right away!

The fourth tip is to DEVELOP ONCE AND PROMOTE OFTEN! Once you've created your first (or next!) information product, your work isn't done! The next step is to continue to promote it! You can't just "build it and they will come." Make it a point to promote your product -- post about it on social media. Do guest blog posts or be a guest on podcasts where your ideal client for that product hangs out! Excerpt it!

Finally, JUST GET STARTED! One thing I said over and over again on the call was: "Done is better than perfect!" You can always go back and add to the information product. But getting something done and out there is a huge motivator! If you want help creating an information product for your career services business, take the 7-Step Product Creation Challenge! It's just $37 for the self-guided program. It walks you through the process, step-by-step!

Guest Post: Clarifying Social Media Strategy with the POST Method

By Christine Gallagher

It sounds simple, but before you implement a new marketing strategy in your business, you need to first know what your objectives are. That is, what is it that you are trying to accomplish? Social media is no different. It's not enough to want to add it to your marketing mix because "everyone else is doing it."

Luckily, Forrester Research came up with a handy little acronym, which my colleague Amy Miyamoto and I also included in our Social Media Made Simple webinar series. It's called the POST Method, and it's a really easy way to frame your social media strategy. Here's how it breaks down:

P: Who are the PEOPLE you would most like to attract via your social media presence on sites such as Twitter and Facebook? For example--mentors, colleagues, strategic alliance partners, raving fans, potential clients, local connections? Or a combination of these?

O: What are your primary OBJECTIVES for your Social Media presence? For example, is it to get found by those who are looking for your services or products, finding and interacting with current and potential clients and customers, building a community around your business, creating awareness of your content and offerings, building relationships with potential strategic alliance and referral partners, learning from mentors?

S: What Social Media STRATEGIES do you plan to implement? Will you have a Twitter profile, a Facebook Fan Page, a LinkedIn profile, join a Facebook Group, start a blog? Which ones have priority over others?

T: What TECHNOLOGIES will you use? For example--Hootsuite, Twellow, Ping.fm, Twitpic, YouTube, Bit.ly for link shortening? (The ones you determine to be of highest priority to you will influence the kinds of actions you take on the social media sites you have a presence on.)

Finally, for bonus points, you could also include "M" as in "how will you MEASURE your results?" Understandably, businesspeople still want to know the ROI of their activities--and although this is not as cut and dry to measure in social media, there are still certain numbers that you can look to: your number of newsletter or blog subscribers, number of followers and fans, your website traffic, the amount of comments on your blog, how many purchases made, etc.

The POST method is a good basic structure for starting to define your social media plan, objectives, and priorities. By identifying all the relevant parts of the structure you are creating a clearer vision and purpose--as well as implementing goals, strategies, and tools that will best enable you to effectively reach the ideal people you are looking to connect with through social media.

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Christine Gallagher is founder of ShesGotClients.com, a company dedicated to teaching women entrepreneurs all over the world how to use authentic relationship marketing and online strategies to attract raving fans, enroll more clients, and enjoy more income and freedom in their business, all while sharing their gifts and their message in a much bigger way.

Christine created The 6 Simple Steps to Kick Start Your Social Media Success System(TM), a real-world, step-by-step "roadmap" that teaches entrepreneurs how to consistently bring in new clients and customers using the Internet.

Through her coaching and training business, Christine helps entrepreneurs maximize their profits using an integrated social media and online marketing strategy, and teaches them how to stop trading dollars for hours by using online information marketing techniques.

Christine was recently featured as a social media marketing expert in the book Get Scrappy: A Small Business Owner's Guide to Marketing On Less, as well as profiled as one of "16 Brilliant Business Minds on Twitter" by The Huffington Post. Her blog was also recently chosen as one of the top 50 small business blogs by Konector.com, and her newsletters, products, and online reach now educate and inspire over 18,000 people every month.

Learn more about Christine, her products, programs and courses at ShesGotClients.com

Sign up for Christine's "Get Out There" Ezine. Click here.

Guest Post: Business Success: It's Not All About Finding Your Niche and Growing Your List

Guest blog post by Sandra Martini
This past weekend I was involved in a hit and run car accident. As witnesses pulled around me to continue on their day, I started thinking about personal responsibility.

Obviously the person who hit me wasn’t taking any.

Then a flashback to a call with a potential client a few weeks ago (yep, I’d moved the car out of the road by this point) where she said “none of my previous coaches know how to teach and that’s why [her] business isn’t succeeding.”

And on to several business owners who have said, and continue to say, something to the effect of:
“I don’t have time to connect with my clients each week”
“I don’t have time to read and comment on industry blogs”
“I hear your 30-day training is great, but I’m too busy to sign up, read each daily message and take action on it”
“Sounds like a great book, but I don’t have time to read it”
“I didn’t have time to follow- up with those I met at the event – I’ll do it next week” (note: “next week” never comes)
“I’m too busy trying to get clients to create a plan”

You get the idea. Excuse after excuse after excuse. And usually wondering why things aren’t going the way they hoped.

Reality:
We’re ALL busy. And most of us think we’re busier than we are.
Our clients are busy. Our vendors are busy. Our colleagues are busy. Those who succeed learn to manage their time and focus on those activities which will best serve their goals.
As a business owner, even the owner of a lifestyle business, we occasionally need to make sacrifices –- get up an hour earlier, work on a Saturday morning/evening, whatever to finish something we committed to.

It’s tough to stay on top of all things, all the time -– especially when we combine business with a personal life.

I know this and experience the same and when I’m tempted to make an excuse, I remember something my Dad said long ago: “whatever you accept, you get more of” -– start accepting excuses (even from yourself) and you’ll get more of them.

As the market becomes more competitive and clients become more discerning about where they invest their money, you want to ensure that you’re known for the *right* things: providing value and doing what you say you will…in addition to the *what* of what you do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Request to You:

Before we can move forward, let’s clean up anything that needs attention:
Grab your “to do” (or “Action”) list. You know…the *big* one.
Look over it and put stars or highlight anything that “should” have been done by now -– starting with things that are owed to clients, colleagues, vendors, etc.
Make a commitment to yourself right now that you’ll assume personal responsibility in all things going forward, knowing that it means you’ll have to say “no” to things which don’t fit or you don’t have time for.
Set aside a day this week to catch up on those things which need catching up on (delegate what you can, do the rest).
Smile and give yourself a reward for getting caught up.

Moving forward. . .
Take time to identify your personal and business values.
Each morning think about your top five values and act with intent throughout the day.

Taking consistent action and living your life/managing your business according to your values will ensure that you’re on track for a life on your terms. And if those values include integrity, personal responsibility, value, Extreme Client Care™ and constant learning, you’re well on your way to success and the life you envision.

It’s the millions of little things we do and choices we make, every day, which determines our business success or failure.

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