Being Effective at Your Job

If you’re somebody who only has a couple things on their plate, you should consider yourself lucky. In today’s world, most people are multi-taskers. They’re parents, professionals, volunteers, spouses, students, and any number of other roles all at one time. I, myself, am a wife, mom, student, professional, to name a few. Some people thrive when facing many challenges at once while other people suffer; their home life suffers, their work suffers, and maybe even their health. If you’re overwhelmed, you need to find a solution. A perfect solution would be to find an assistant. This is what I do for my clients.

Can’t decide if you need an assistant? Read on and see how many of these statements you can say fit your life.

• You find yourself spending more time at work than you do with your family.
• You can’t remember the last time you went golfing, to the beach, read a book, took in a movie. Leisure time? What’s that?
• All of your land lines, your BlackBerry, your incoming E-mail, and your Twitter accounts make more noise than your twin toddlers and your two dogs combined.
• Excedrin Migraine and Red Bull have become staples in your diet.
• Your clients have this angry “aura” about them where you’re concerned. Could it be because you’ve forgotten half the tasks they have asked you to take care of?
• Your house is a constant disaster area and the National Guard should be brought in to save you.
• You find yourself saying how tired you are EVERY DAY!
• You love your work and want to keep business coming in and your current clients happy.

These are all great reasons why you should hire an assistant. As I’ve already covered in a previous posting, a Virtual Assistant can be a great way to go. A virtual assistant equals low overhead costs and someone who is highly organized and able to meet specific needs. VA’s are adept at being multi-taskers, they are eager to try new things, they are time-savers, and LIFE-savers.

If you think that you’re ready to try the next step and see what a Virtual Assistant can do for you, send me a message. I would love the opportunity to consult with you and maybe even work with you!!

Working From Home

I think it’s past time that I’ve shared an article about working from home. After all, that’s what I do and I write the articles for this blog so it only makes sense. First, I’ll give you a little back story.

Once upon a time, I worked a regular job outside of the home.I started out babysitting when I was in high school and I also got a job working at a mall kiosk over winter break one year too. When I graduated high school and I figured college could wait, (ummmm…) I got a job at Sears in their photo studio. Holy moly!! I hated that job. Working with people’s kids isn’t my cup of tea and trying to get two year olds to sit for a photo is near to impossible. I quit that job to work at GTE as a customer service rep. For you young people, GTE is now Verizon. I wasn’t very good at that job either. Trying to be understanding and polite while people were yelling at me because their phone was shut off because they didn’t pay it is beyond my abilities. I told quite a few people off, lol. While working at GTE, I became pregnant with my first daughter. That led to me becoming a stay at home mom for the next 12 years.

Fast forward to the age of online social networking…

Last year I was frittering around on Twitter when I saw a tweet for a paid internship. At first, I ignored it. I’m from the school of, “If it seems to good to be true, it usually is.” How many paid internships are offered let alone telecommuting ones? After I noticed the same tweet for the second or third time, I finally responded. This led to a Twitter conversation which led to me typing up my first resumé EVER, which led to a phone interview. I was told later that I beat out other applicants because of my knowledge of social media. Wow! After not working for 12 years, I didn’t figure I had any marketable skills but it turns out that I did!

Answering that too-good-to-be-true tweet was the beginning of something that has turned out to be pretty important to me:  Having my own business.

The Benefits

Where to begin? Working from home, especially if you’re doing so for your own business, is so rewarding. It’s also challenging but I’ll get to that later.

• Self Esteem.  First and foremost, it gives you a huge ego boost because you’re providing a needed service to somebody and you’re doing it all under your own supervision. You make your own hours and you’re responsible for completing tasks on time. This shows that you are a great manager with awesome organizational skills as well as a great employee.
• Money.  Next, while earning money, you’re saving money. You don’t have to pay outrageous dough at the gas pumps, you’re eating food that’s already in your house for lunch, and you don’t have to buy work clothes. Your pajamas could be your “Casual Friday” heheh. And the biggest savings:  Daycare. Unless you want to send your kid(s) off for the day, you can make your work schedule coincide with school hours, nap time, or bed time.
• Flexibility.  The flexibility with working from home is amazing. Of course, if you have a demanding client, then not so much, but for the most part, as long as you’re making deadlines, you can do the work all in one or two days or spread it out to a few hours a day. You can take lunch and other breaks when you want to and you can start and finish your day when you want.
• Think Outside of the box.  Also, you get to work in the comfort of your home and in the space that you have specifically set up for YOU. No drab cubicles. No windowless offices.

The Negatives

Working from home isn’t a fairytale. While it has its ups, it also has its downs. I would think that is so with any job.

• Distractions.  One negative aspect of working from home are the potential distractions. I have a dedicated office which is my finished room over my garage. Being over the garage, I hear very little noise from downstairs unless my kids are raising an absolute ruckus which happens. DISTRACTION!! I either have to obsess over not going downstairs to break things up or I have to stop what I’m doing to see what they’re up to. While I have a door on my office, it doesn’t stop the kids from coming upstairs to ask for something or to tattle on each other either. Aside from kids, you have friends, neighbors, and delivery people stopping by during the day as well as your phone ringing that’s a huge distraction as well.
• Guilt.  There’s also a guilt factor when working from home. You’re in your house even though you are earning a living and it can be hard to resist doing household chores or playing with your kids even though you have a deadline to meet. This is solved by finding a balance and making a schedule. The dirty laundry will be there at the end of your designated work day. Trust me.
• Money.  Finances are also another point to worry about when working from home. Your utilities will be a little higher with having someone home all day and you also have to pay for office equipment. You also have to remember that you’re responsible for paying your own taxes while maintaining your own books: Income, expenses, profit and loss.
• Insurance.  I’m very lucky in that my husband’s employer provides our family with adequate medical, dental, and eye care. This definitely isn’t so with everybody. In fact, this alone could be a deal breaker when it comes to working from home. This is one factor that you should consider very seriously if you’re thinking of starting your own work from home business.
• Credibility.  I hope that this isn’t an issue for everyone, but being taken seriously when you’re working from home can be an issue. When I told some of my family that I was officially a business with a license, they laughed. I wish I was kidding but I’m not. There’s a stigma that comes with working from home that is still being overcome. Some people will assume that “working from home” is code for “eating bon bons and watching soap operas”. I try not to let it get to me because I know that my clients appreciate what I do for them. I know that I bring home real paychecks from them. I know that I am good at what I do.
• The Learning Curve.  If you’re new to the work at home game, you have things to learn such as whether or not to establish yourself as a business, what tax forms you need to file, how to find clients, how to market yourself, the difference between a C Corporation, S Corporation, LLC, and Sole Proprietorship, and you also have to learn how to balance work and family just to name a few. Don’t expect to figure it all in a day but these are things you should research and plan for.

In my personal opinion and for my situation, the benefits outweigh the negatives. Then again, I’m not your typical work at home person. I was a business before I even realized it and health insurance isn’t something I have to consider. Still, I believe that if I can do it, then anybody can and they can be successful at it too. It just takes effort, gumption, and discipline.

If you’d like more information or advice about starting your own work at home business, please leave me a comment or check out my contact page for other ways to get a hold of me. Consulting with others is what I do and what I love and I would be more than happy to have a conversation with you!

Hiring Work at Home Help

As we all know, the economy sucks. What this means for the workforce is that jobs can be hard to find and hiring new people or keeping on your current employees can be too expensive. A new trend and a great solution is hiring work at home help. Don’t just take my word for it, but check out this great article in the Washington Post:  Virtual Assistants in Higher Demand .

The Benefits

Virtual Assistants, contract workers, virtual consultants, etc., provide a myriad of services and all from their home. What does this mean to a business owner? That you can hire extra help without needing to provide fringe benefits such as health and dental, 401K packages, etc. Those of us who work from home are pretty basically our own business. I, myself, have established myself as Trisha Jones Business Solutions. I pay a yearly fee to maintain what my town calls a “Privilege License”, I’m responsible for paying my own taxes, and I have health, dental, and eye care through my husband.

Another great benefit of hiring a VA is that you only pay them for the hours that they work. What does this mean? It means that they aren’t billing you for lunch, coffee breaks, personal phone calls, chats with coworkers, or any other distractions throughout the day. At least reliable, conscientious workers aren’t charging for these things. You, the business owner, are only paying your contracted workers for productive hours which will seriously cut down on your overhead. Paid vacations? NOPE!!!

These are definite benefits to a business owner operating on the edge. However, there are also things you should be aware of and keep in mind when hiring virtual help.

Keep in Mind

First of all, if you’re bad at communication, having a virtual assistant is probably not for you. Since all your communication is going to be via phone and/or e-mail, you have to be willing and able to be in contact. Yes, your VA is working from home and should be able to do so without constant supervision, however, your VA is going to have questions and you need to be available to answer them and in a timely manner. You’re going to have instructions so you need to be clear about what your expectations are. I will give you a real life example from my work past.

I had this client who hired me for a specific project. It started out great. The person claimed that they loved communication and would encourage a dialogue between us. However, once I got started, I realized that the client’s expectations would totally unreasonable. I could do what they asked, bill them the hours, and get paid, but they were not going to get the results that they wanted. I certainly didn’t feel right doing this, so I tried to get in contact. Once I had discovered that they were out of the country, I sent a detailed e-mail. They e-mailed back, didn’t address one single thing in my e-mail but told me to bill them for the month, and that was the last I heard from them. Fine by me. Despite the excellent pay, it wasn’t worth it to me to work for someone that couldn’t do something as simple as answer an e-mail.

Secondly, credentials are great, but in this emerging field of virtual assistants, you may be limiting your resources by insisting that a potential VA come with all sorts of degrees and certificates. For example, social media marketing isn’t a credentialed field…yet. Instead of asking for a pedigree, ask for references and recommendations.

Something else to ask is what kind of computer, software, and Internet access your potential VA possesses. Depending upon what type of business you own and what you expect your VA to do, this could be especially important. Personally, I send out several Excel spreadsheets a week to my clients and I couldn’t imagine doing so on dial up access. How long would that e-mail take??

Ask to see specific examples of their work, i.e., spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, etc. Also, if you’re hiring for social media expertise, make sure that your potential VA gives you their IDs for the different social networking sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn so that you can get an idea of what they know how to do.

This is a personal pet peeve of mine but worth mentioning. If you’re on Twitter and you tweet your need for a VA, don’t ask for a Direct Message (DM) back from those that are interested. You can only receive a DM if you’re following that person. Instead, have an e-mail address on your profile to where inquiries can be sent.

If you do decide to hire a VA, have them sign a contract. This contract should state your expectations, pay, length of contract, and have a non-disclosure section as well. This protects both you and your VA.

 

Should You Hire a VA

Of course, the ultimate decision is up to you. Some people are too much of a traditionalist to hire a telecommuter to work for your business. After all, this is new and you’re putting a tremendous amount of trust in someone you’ll probably never meet face to face (this is where references come in ). You’ll need to weigh the pros and cons and decide what is best for your business. My recommendation? Keep your options open and keep and open mind.

Managing Your Time, Pt. 1: Twitter

I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about how to manage social media marketing time. There are so many different outlets out there with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumbleupon, etc., that it can very easily become overwhelming and before you know it, instead of reaching potential clients and customers, you and your message get tired and burned out. My number one piece of advice is to find focus. With this article, I am going to turn my focus onto Twitter and suggest a few ways to best manage your time using Twitter.

Set Limits

Getting lost in Twitter is so easy to do that it’s a bit crazy. You start off by checking your e-mail to see if you have any new followers. Three hours and 100 tweets later, you look up with bloodshot eyes from your computer monitor and realize it’s starting to get dark outside. Yes. It really can happen. To avoid this, set a schedule. Running a business, you should have a schedule anyway, but work in your social media marketing time and then allocate a specific amount of time for certain tasks. For example, take 20 minutes to follow and unfollow people. If you reach the end of the 20 minutes and need more time, work a second session into your day but be disciplined about it. Twitter is fun and fun tasks are easier to do and easier to get lost in than other not so fun, but still necessary, tasks.

Be a Discerning Tweeter

You are running a children’s clothing store. You visit Twellow in search of fellow moms that you can market to. Great idea. But just because you perform a search and find dozens of profiles featuring the word “mom”, it doesn’t mean that you should go on a Twitter spaz and start following every single person that you find. Click on and actually read their profiles. If they haven’t taken the time to upload a profile pic and fill out their profile, then chances are that they aren’t going to take the time to Twitter very often and they probably won’t stick around long either. Also check their follower vs following numbers. If they are following 10,000 people but only have 200 followers, they are not on Twitter to benefit anybody other than themselves and are quite possibly spammers. While the numbers don’t have to match up perfectly (mine differ by about 75 depending on the time of day), they should be relatively close. Not spot on, just in the same ballpark. One more mitigating factor to look at is their number of updates in relation to their followers and following numbers. Again, if they are following a few hundred people or more and have ZERO updates, they are most likely spammers. Plus, if they aren’t tweeting, they probably aren’t reading tweets either so to follow them would be pointless.

Twitter Tools

Find and make use of some of the many twitter tools out there. This, in itself, is a task that takes time. Twitter is so unbelievable popular of late, that developers have themselves in a tizzy trying to make the latest and greatest Twitter tool. I, myself, like to stick with some of the tried and true.

1. TweetDeck. I simply love TweetDeck. The little sound it makes when I have updates is music to my ears. I had to pause and reflect there for a minute. Anyway, TweetDeck is a great application. There are lots of videos out there on how to effectively use TweetDeck like this, How to Use TweetDeck for Easy Twitter Management, but I’ll highlight a few of my favorite features. First of all, it shortens URL’s within the application so that you don’t have to use an outside source to do so. You can also use it to update your Facebook status and twit pics. Most importantly, you can categorize the tweeple that you follow into groups. For instance, I have a group for people that I know in real life and SEO twitterers. You can also perform searches and TweetDeck will save those searches and display the results whenever it receives updates. Click on the screenshot to get a better idea of how TweetDeck organizes this information. It is one of the best timesavers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Twitter on Facebook. Whenever I twitter, my tweet is automatically displayed on my Facebook profile as well. This cuts out so many extra steps in my day. Instead of constantly going back and forth between my two favorite social media applications, I get to update them both AND, I can even do it from my cell phone. While I’m here, I’ll encourage you to turn on mobile updates on your Twitter profile. DO IT!! Trust me.

3. Mobile Applications. If you have a Blackberry, you can download and use TwitterBerry. It’s both easy to download and it’s easy to use. It’s great for the constantly on the go type. Another mobile application is Tweetie for iPhone and iPod Touch users. Tweetie if my favorite iPod Touch Twitter client but it’s a paid app. If you would rather not pay for a Twitter app, another excellent choice is Twitterific. Twitterific has both a paid and free app and the free app is great and more than enough for the mobile user.

4. Directories and Twitter Search Sites. I mentioned Twellow above. It’s a really great place to find new people to follow. Another directory is WeFollow. I could go on, but performing a simple search at Google will net you more responses.

Follow Up

From time to time, read through your list of “Following” and decide whether or not everyone on your list is still relevant to your business and your needs. Just like anything else in life, people come and go and people’s interests change on a daily basis. Somebody that you followed two months ago because they were twittering about their mom group may have changed their priorities and only twitter about the music they are listening to at the moment. Sure, you can still continue to follow them but you might categorize them differently to save yourself time reading through tweets when you are looking for specific, business-related tweets.

You might be reading through this and think, “Man! She’s out of her mind! All of this stuff is going to take me loads of time. Won’t my time be better spent elsewhere??” In the beginning, building your Twitter presence and a Twitter community will, indeed, take time. How many instant friendships have you had as an adult? You have to get to know people first before you can relate to each other. It’s social media marketing people. Build the relationships and they will pay off for you. Your online network of friends and contacts can be a rich resource for your business and your brand. The more you do in the beginning, the less time it will take to maintain in the long run. Trust me.

Social Media Interview

I was recently asked to participate in an interview about social media marketing for Bookie Boo. Bookie Boo is an online social networking group for moms who are interested in fitness. It’s also a great group for moms who want to learn more about running their own business. My interview is featured in the WAHM Networking and Marketing Group. You can click on the links I provided to check out Bookie Boo for yourself and to read the discussion with my interview and the follow up questions. I am also going to publish my interview here on my blog because the information is relevant and it’s also one of my favorite subjects!

1. What is "social media marketing"?
Social media marketing to me is utilizing tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other similar platforms, to bring exposure to your blog, brand, product, and/or business.
2. You’ve been building a business to help other businesses use social media outlets. What is your favorite social media outlet?
These days, I think saying that Twitter is a favorite social media outlet should go without saying. My second favorite outlet is Facebook.
3. Marketing through social media can get pretty overwhelming. Do you have any tips on how to make the most use of limited time?
Download and use gadgets such as TweetDeck to organize and manage your Twitter account. If you follow more than a hundred people, (and who doesn’t these days???), trying to keep up with everyone’s tweets using Twitter’s website is impossible. Also, use other tools that broadcast your messages across several websites. For instance, when I update my Twitter status, the same message is automatically broadcast on Facebook as well with no extra effort on my part. Friend Feed is a good website to check out for this purpose. You can also use widgets on your blog and website to show your Twitter status.
4. How can social media help to build our brands and reinforce our credibility among our consumers?
First off, using social media is something that you, the business owner, need to take seriously if you want consumers to take it seriously. You need to remember that whatever you are putting out there, whether it’s a Facebook or LinkedIn profile, or if it’s your latest tweet, it can be seen by new potential clients. Build your brand by only putting out there relevant and factual information. Most importantly, reply to direct messages.
5. How can I stand out in the social media world?
With the popularity of social media growing daily, it can be very hard to be unique. Make sure that your profile pages reflect you and your brand. Don’t use generic images. If you have to use stock images, recolor them or add in different elements that make that stock image unique to you. Also, where Twitter is concerned, to stand out, don’t just retweet every message that you see. Offer your own thoughts and ideas for others to read. Retweeting is nice to show loyalty and support to others and it has its place, but all you’re essentially doing is repeating what someone else, and probably a dozen other retweeters, have already said.
6. How do I measure the effectiveness of my social media venture?
You can measure the effectiveness of your venture by numbers, pure and simple. If you see an influx of business, you can rest assured that your efforts have not gone in vain. You can also keep track of traffic to your blog and/or website by using tracking websites such as Google Analytics. While this may be a somewhat skewed statistic, keeping track of how many friends, followers, and retweets you get can also be a measure of how well your efforts are doing.
7. How do I find and focus my efforts on my target audience?
You have to start out knowing who your target audience is. If you are selling items to moms and children for instance, joining online groups just like Bookie Boo is a perfect place to start. Make friends and contribute to those groups. The great thing about social media is that once you get started, it’s addicting and hard to stop, lol. That first step of joining a group leads to FaceBook, Twitter, and the rest of the social media outlets. Add moms that you found in a group, like Bookie Boo, to your friends lists and then broadcast messages that advertise your products, giveaways, and special deals. But be genuine!! Don’t join groups for the sole purpose of pushing your own agenda. Be a positive and active contributor. Lastly, don’t forget that your online audience consists of real people. Don’t bombard them with constant advertising. Use social media to find out what your customers like, hate, want, and don’t want. Ask for feedback and then reply.
While joining a ton of websites will help you to spread your word further, it’s also necessary to find a bit of focus. Unless you have and can afford a team of social media experts, you are going to be doing most of your social media networking yourself. Don’t be afraid to try out as many outlets as you have time for, but then weed them out and pick the ones that are most relevant to your business and really work those. Add links to your various profiles on all of your other profiles. What I mean is, add links to your Twitter profile on your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook profile, your blog, your website, etc., and do that for all of your profiles. Let people see all the possibilities of where they can find you wherever you can be found! Also, websites such as MyBlogLog let you add links to your all your social media websites on your profile in one convenient place.
My last piece of advice is don’t use an auto-repsonder. How do you feel when you receive one of those telemarketing calls that is a computer asking you to hold while they bring someone on the line to sell you something you didn’t want in the first place? I’m willing to bet you hang up before the computer finishes its ridiculous request. An auto-responder generates the same feeling; that you aren’t important enough to actually talk to and that you’re ignorant enough to stay around and listen.

Blogging Part Three: The Don’ts

 

This article will be somewhat shorter than the others. Why? Because the beautiful thing about blogs, even business blogs, is the versatility. Blogs are meant to be more informal than other mediums such as advertising and your actual website. I wouldn’t say that it’s an “anything goes” platform, but there aren’t stringent guidelines. At least not in my opinion.

One thing to keep in mind is that blog readers tend to be scanners. What this means is that if your blog post is so long that it starts resembling a novella, your readers are probably going to skim it rather than read it word for word. If you find that you can’t keep your post down to a manageable length, be sure and break it up with pictures, images, bulleted lists, or even an embedded video. Headings, different colored fonts, and different sized text also helps to break up your post and draw the reader’s eye.

While we’re talking about fonts and color, make sure that your blog is READABLE. A nifty font and bright colors may be fun, but they might also be hard to read. If your readers can’t read your blog, then your entire endeavor is pointless.

Another “don’t” is NO MUSIC. Unless your website is actually music related, i.e., a band, musical instrument sales, concert promotions, etc., having music play on your blog is cheesy. I’m sorry, but it is. It can also get people into trouble is they’re reading your blog at their workplace.

This one should go without saying but unfortunately, some people tend to be on a slower learning curve. Pop ups. No, no, no!! Pop ups say, “Spam!” “Virus!” “Unprofessional!!” Most people will have a pop up blocker plugged into their browser anyway but for those who don’t, pop ups are a pain. Plain and simple.

Broken links are also a no no. Test your links out from time to time and make sure that they still work. Depending upon the number of links you provide, this could be really time consuming, but you owe it to your loyal readers to ensure that you’re not wasting their time and also that  you don’t disappoint them with content that is out of date.

Blogging Part Two: Elements for Your Blog

These tips also apply to websites as well, but I’m specifically going to address items (aside from written articles) that your blog should always have.

E-Mail

First, and most important in my opinion, contact information. What good is it to publish information about yourself online and then leave your readers with no way to contact you? At the very least, you should have an e-mail address. If you’re afraid of spam, compose your e-mail address like this:  trishaj at gmail dot com. If you’re truly paranoid, set up an e-mail account that is specifically for your blog. My favorite e-mail account is Gmail. It’s free, it has so much storage space that you’d have a really tough time filling it up, and it also has free POP forwarding which means that you can have an e-mail client like Microsoft Outlook grab your e-mail and deliver it right to your computer. What’s more is that in my experience, recipients with AOL e-mail are the only people I’ve had my Gmail e-mail sorted into junk folders. I’m sure there are probably other e-mail providers out there that sort Gmail mail into junk folders, but I haven’t run across them yet.

Secondly, if you’re out of your office for any reason, make sure and set up an auto-generated “out of office” e-mail reply. Don’t just leave people hanging for days or even weeks waiting for a response while you’re off lounging on a beach on vacation. It’s unprofessional and tends to make people angry. Angry people don’t make good business clients or customers.

If you have limited storage space on your e-mail account, make sure and clean it out regularly. There is little that is more frustrating than having e-mails bounce back because of a full inbox. Again, it tends to anger people when they can’t get in touch for such a silly reason and you’ve probably just lost business because people can’t figure out how to contact you in any other way.

One last thing, when you get an e-mail, REPLY to it! There is nothing that is going to turn a potential client/customer off more than having their e-mails go unanswered. I understand that you may be a very busy person, but if you’re going to give out an e-mail address for inquiries, comments, etc. (and you should­), then at least have the courtesy to answer your mail. I’ll get into scheduling and organizing your work day in a later post.

Salutations

This sort of goes along with e-mail but deserves its own space. I know that people are wary of putting their identity on the Internet, but if you’re publishing your business online either with a website or a blog or both, you’re already putting a lot of yourself out there for all to see. There have been times when I was trying to contact somebody for business reasons via contact information on their website but didn’t have a name. It just makes it awkward to address an e-mail to “Whom it May Concern”. It sounds very impersonal. Even if you only include your first name, it at least makes your readers feel like they are e-mailing a person and not a machine.

Finding What You Need

All blogs and websites should include a search field. A search field gives your readers a way to find specific information on your blog without them having to sort through days, months, or even years of posts. Let’s face it. Everyone’s day is packed full of appointments, errands, etc., and nobody is going to feel like wasting their time scrolling through your blog looking for one particular piece of information. They’ll give up and move on and quite possibly not bother with your blog again.

Don’t Be the Weakest Link

A links or resources page or section is a must. This page should include links to other businesses, websites, and blogs that are relevant to your blog. It should also include links to clients and customers if at all possible. It’s a great way to show that you appreciate their business. Furthermore, by including links to other relevant web pages, you’re showing your readers that you understand their needs and that you’re not afraid to send traffic to other blogs. Hoarding traffic to yourself exhibits insecurities. Additionally, if you’re not willing to link to other people, you can’t expect people to want to link back to you.

Who Are You Again?

This may seem obvious, but since I’ve been conducting research for clients, you’d be amazed at how many times I’ve run across this issue…Make sure that the name of your business and/or blog, is on every page of your blog. This includes any links that you have to outside sources such as an online photo album or articles that you’ve written that are stored somewhere other than on your blog. For example, if you write an article for your blog and then refer your readers to your Photobucket account, make sure that account or the photos that you’re referencing include the name of your blog and/or your business with them. This does two things: One, it ensures that your readers remember what they are looking at, and two, it will deter people from stealing your stuff. This may seem unimportant, but I assure you that it’s not.

Tags and Titles

I don’t know about everyone else, but devising a title and tags for my posts are oftentimes the most challenging part of blogging. The really bad thing about it is that it’s one of the most important features of your blog. Tags and titles determine how you will show up in search results. Without relevant tags and titles, your blog and your articles will most likely be overlooked and located on page 20+ of a Google search. What does that mean? Basically it means that nobody is going to be reading what you write except for you, sadly enough.

Everyone’s writing style is different, but what works best for me is figuring out these two items when I am done writing a post. I reread what I have written and from that I brainstorm ideas for titles and the most useful tags. Both should reflect the topic(s) of your post, be succinct, and descriptive.

Subscribing

Last, but certainly not least, make sure that your readers have a way to subscribe to your RSS feed. It also doesn’t hurt, and should definitely be considered, to add buttons for your readers to Stumble, Digg, Twitter, etc., articles that you’ve written that they have found interesting. It’s an excellent way to gain readership and direct traffic to your blog.

 

Next in my blogging series, I’ll discuss what not to include on your business blog. See you next time!

Blogging Part One: Audience and Tone

For me, blogging began as a very personal journey. I started out without any intentions of using my blog as a way to gain or increase business, nor did I worry about how many subscribers that I had. It was simply a way for me to keep in touch with friends and family. That was in 2003. Since then, my blogging needs and goals have evolved. My personal blog went from being updates for my family and friends that live 900+ miles from me to becoming a place where I discussed books that I had read and/or wanted to read and I actively searched for other book bloggers. It didn’t take me long to discover that blogging with one topic was not for me. Ever since my brief venture into book blogging, my blog has been in a state of flux. Mind you, it’s still my personal blog so I am not all that inclined to change my ways. With a professional blog, however, you can’t get away with mindless rambling and I’ll explain why.

First of all, a professional blog should not include things such as how successful potty training is going with your toddler or how your dog behaved at the vet’s office. You should also have a mission. By mission I mean, what message are you trying to send to your readers? Your blog should have direction and each post should be limited to one or two topics. That topic and all subsequent topics should be written with your targeted audience in mind. You shouldn’t compose blog posts that would appeal to a child when said blog is part of your professional persona.

You should also decide on the tone of voice that you want your blog to have. Are you going to be strictly serious in your tone or will you occasionally have a Casual Friday thrown in the mix? To be professional, you don’t necessarily have to have a strict tone of voice but you should avoid curse words, derogatory comments, and profuse slang. If you want people to take you seriously, your tone of voice should reflect that. Proofreading and proper grammar are a must as well. You can get away with the occasional typo on your personal blog but the blog for your business should be error free, well thought out, and proofread to within an inch of its life. Your readers not having to stumble over a multitude of mistakes and spelling errors lends to the professional tone of voice that you are trying to portray. Whatever you decide, do your best to make sure that you have personality behind your tone. People tend to become very bored with someone who drones on and on like they are quoting from a textbook rather than sharing their thoughts with you. Remember in high school when history class was just a bunch on dates and names that you couldn’t remember when it came to test time? Adding anecdotes and images give personality to your tone and help to capture your audience.

Welcome

Welcome to the new home of Trisha Jones Business Solutions blog.

I intend for this blog to be a way to demonstrate my abilities and what I can do for potential clients. I will also be posting articles on about SEO, Web 2.0, social networking, and my experiences of being a mom who is also an entreprenuer. Like there aren’t enough of those out there already, right? Well, hopefully I can bring a unique and fresh point of view on these topics to the web. It helps that I’m pretty opinionated and not afraid to sell it.