How Content Marketing and Copywriting Work Together to Grow Your Community

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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content-marketing-copywritingby Tammi Metzler – Guest Post

Oftentimes, the terms “content marketing” and “copywriting” get mistaken for one and the same.

The reality is that while they do go together like bread and butter, they are separate entities, each with their own vital role in your blogging efforts.

Let’s begin our discussion with some short and sweet definitions, to make sure we’re all on the same page, but bear with me because then I’ll show you some cool (and simple :)) tips to help you use copywriting techniques to make your content not only more spellbinding tor readers but also more effective in attracting leads and customers.

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Benefits of Blogging for Businesses

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Kathy Hadley benefits image 1

Kathy Hadley selfI am honored to have Kathy Hadley as my Guest Blogger today

Are you in business?

Do you think that blogging isn’t for you?

Well, guess again.

Every business can benefit from blogging, even offline businesses.

Here is why.

1) It helps drive traffic to your website. Read more

How to Be a Successful Blogger

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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How to Be a Successful Blogger: 19 Experts Share Their Secrets

cowboy photo 2

When it comes to blogging, who do you ask for advice?  Many bloggers don’t know other bloggers to rely on for help.

When making decisions, it’s always a good idea to ask experts, so I put together collective wisdom from successful bloggers.  What is the secret to successful blogging?  This post will share advice from the experts that you can apply to your own blogging strategies.

If you could only give one tip to bloggers to be successful, what would it be and why?

What You are Not Supposed to Do

Teresa OlveraDon’t worry about what everyone else is doing.  Just be yourself.  

Teresa Olvera, Founder of California Mom Bloggers, http://nowimsimplyme.com/

Don’t try to quantify yourself.  The numbers are not what is important…

Melissa Lopez ReyesMelissa Reyes, author: This is the Sound of My Soul, life coach, host of Ten Minutes in Tinsel Town, mizmeliz.com

What You Are Supposed To Do

Write With Passion…

Find your blogging passion.  Make sure there is an audience for what you want to share, and pursue it because your passion will make it  easier to put in the necessary Intuitive Biz Coachpush to keep it moving forward.

Donna Ward, Social Media and Blog Consultant – Do You Need This Blogging Tip?

Write from your heart.  Be true to yourself.  Don’t try and emulate anyone.

Image result for carolyn westCarolyn West, head of the Southern California Bloggers Association, thistalkaintcheap.com, campaign leader, social media manager, mentor

Write about what you are passionate about. When you are writing about something you really know and enjoy, the writing flows easier, you always have material, and your passion will be evident to your readers. When your passion and knowledge are evident to your readers, they enjoy the experience and will come back, comment, and share your posts more often.

 
 Images Matter Most

Have a pinnable image on every blog post for Pinterest and an Open Graph image for all other posts.  Visuals are needed for sharing.

fitzpatrickPeg Fitzpatrick Bio Rockin’ a positive attitude • Co-author of #ArtofSocial Media http://amzn.to/10aOzd4 • Speaker • Social media strategist • Pinterest and visual media pro

The Secret is Great Content

Suzie81blogI would say that content is key – you could be the best in the world at promoting your posts, but if the posts themselves…are rubbish or just full of inspirational quotes, it’s unlikely that a potential reader will visit again
Suzi  Creator of and #SundayBlogShare Teacher, Blogger, Hashtag Warrior
 
Jayson DeMers
 
Focus on quality above all else.  Sub-par quality only weakens your brand.
Jason DeMers, Writer for Forbes, Huffington Post, Founder and CEO of audiencebloom.com
 
Peggy NolanDownload Jon Morrow’s 52 Headline Hacks and learn how to write killer copy. It will keep readers coming back for more! Peggy Nolan, Author: Vanquisher of Fear. Slayer of Self-Doubt

Think of the Reader Before Yourself

Have a giveaway.  It’s not just about you.Traci Lawrence's profile photoTraci Lawrence, Moderator of Google+ Community Awesome Bloggers, author, editor,http://tracisebook.blogspot.com/
Glen Long
Don’t start blogging until you understand two things: who you’re writing for and how they will benefit from reading your blog. Too many bloggers write from inside their own heads instead of their readers and end up defining their audience as “people who like to read the kind of stuff I write about”. However, it’s much easier to build a reader-centred blog than a writer-centred one.

Glen Long, managing editor at BoostBlogTraffic.com

Money is What Matters Most

Spend some time creating a good monetization strategy from the start so that you can financially justify spending time on blogging. A lot of bloggers don’t put a lot of thought into how they will use their blog to make money and think they can just throw up some ads or affiliate links. As a result, I’ve seen bloggers that succeeded in growing an audience, but eventually quit because they weren’t  brianlangmaking enough money.
Brian Lang, SEO of Small Business Ideas

It’s the Combination of Factors That Matter

 The bloggers who win the most traffic are those that combine various content promotion tactics.
  • Search engine optimization – research keywords and pick your battles
  • Social media – network with influencers and share widely
  • Email marketing – make sure your list is growing thanks to a compelling sign up form
The best content doesn’t win. The best promoted content wins. That means doing everything you can to make your content visible, knowing that where there’s traffic, there’s hope. You have to win the visitor or you’ll have no opportunity to turn them into a lead. Here’s a diagram that explains lead generation and how leads are born.
No matter where the visitor came from, they land on a post of helpful, useful content. This is generally a blog post where you are helping them help themselves. They they move to a service page where they learn how you can do the work for them. Next, they find an about page where they learn your purpose, your story and your values. Now that the know you, like you and trust you, they fill out a simple contact form and a lead is born.
 
Understanding the relationship between content, content promotion and lead generation is the key to being a successful blogger. Every action you take as a marketer must be designed to increase the number of visitors or the percentage of visitors who act! That’s my best tip for bloggers…
Andy CrestodinaAndy Crestodina, Author of Content Chemistry, Principal Strategic Director of OrbitMedia.com

 Networking is The Key

 My one tip would be for people to really get out there and mingle.  Interaction is the key to networking and growing your own community.

Jason Cushman, (a.k.a. Opinionated Man), over 50,000 blog followers, aopinionatedman.comMadLemmings.com

 One tip I’d offer to other bloggers is the most basic tip I can give. Just visit, read, comment and engage on as many blogs as you can. It’s a great way to meet other bloggers. Grow and drive traffic back to your own blog. And inspire new blog posts or ways to repurpose your old blogs posts.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ik1CAESUckU/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAABJw/2PRld08B6BQ/photo.jpgLidy Wilks, author: Can You Catch My Flow?, iheartallstories.weebly.com/

Build an email list right away – it’s the most effective way to reach your followers and keep people coming back for more.

Adam ConnellAdam Connell, Founder of Blogging WizardHas increased readers’ traffic by over 400%.

Bloggers need to practice outreach and interact via social media and commenting. Comments are the most personal way to make online connections.
Patricia Haag, Business owner focused on ecommerce and socialmedia,
http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IueVEREdvAA/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAEy0/iCxqxsWbKuo/s512-c/photo.jpg

Promote, Promote, and Promote Your Blog Posts… With it being a statistically proven fact that the majority of traffic coming to a blog post comes within the first few days after being published, promoting each post right away is crucial for you to receive the maximum traffic possibilities. This is where social media becomes your best friend and at times your worst enemy. Immediately after publishing a new blog post, throughout that day, and the next few days, I post the link to Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This is also where blog hops and link-ups really pay off, you get out of them as much as you put in them follow and comment, comment, and comment more.

Lysa Wilds, author, former journalist, http://www.welcometomycircus.com

The one thing I think many a new blogger overlooks, and is more important than any other tip I have read, is networking. And by that I mean getting to know fellow bloggers online, as well as getting in touch with influencers too. The online world is very much like Ashley Faulkes's profile photoreal life. Who you know often has a greater impact than what you know.

Ashley Faulkes MadLemmings.com

There you have it–the experts have weighed in.  If you think the experts’ suggestions could help other bloggers, please share.

I hope you found my first expert round-up an interesting interview.  As you can see, to a large degree, they disagreed with each other.  Whose advice has helped you the most to have the blogging success you have achieved?  I look forward to your views.

Thank you so much for sharing these experts tips, including my own! I am so honored to have been a part of this with Janice Wald and her work.
I do hope you take some serious time to check out each expert and learn – I always check out recommended experts, so off I go now!
>>> Please do let me know what your thoughts are  in the comments below.
Want more tips, how-to’s, advice and suggestions on becoming even more of a successful blogger? Then work with an expert and with a community of bloggers!
Now is your time….and 

blog-150x150 You’re ready to take your blog to a bigger audience, promoting with Social Media planning, and getting more traffic?You can do just that as you get more training for blogging, Social Media, implement this blogging tip from today’s post and learn more about how to promote your blog at the Blogging Mastermind Community <== Click on the words. And, ask me how you can use Social Media better for your Blogging

Want to know what others are saying?

“Thank you, Donna. I needed to read this today. Sometimes as a blogger we get caught up in things around us that we lose focus. Thanks for bringing back on task.” Mary Burris recently posted..Break Up Songs: Since U Been Gone

“A blogging community is the best way to go as far as I am concerned. Not only do we help each other, but we become friends with so many other bloggers.” Terry recently posted..#DIY Mantel And Shelf Redo~ I Need Help With The Fireplace!

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How To Convert Your Passion To Income

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Featured Expert Post by Success With Joan Harrington  – Thank you Joan, wonderful review!Joan Harrington

Did You Know That Living Off Your Passion Is a Right – For Everyone?

I bet you there’s something you love doing that someone else would be happy to pay you for right this second.

Let me ask you a few questions:

1.  What are the things that consistently allow certain people to build a business and living around the things they love most, but allow the other 80% of the world to continue to drag themselves, day in and day out, to a job they can’t stand? Read more

Eat your Way to Better Business: Secret Strategies the Gurus Never Share

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Susie Beiler By Susie Beiler, CHHC, AADP, OTR/L

Do you know what your greatest asset in business is? Most people think it has something to do with how much capital they have or how productive their employees are…

The primary asset that you may have forgotten to factor in to grow your business is that your health is the foundation of your business. Have you ever missed a day or a week for emergency surgery or because you got the flu? If you are overweight, you know how exhausting it is to carry around those extra 50 pounds. Suffer from the 3 pm slump? You know it is not fun to feel exhausted and still have 10 more tasks to complete before the day is over. Read more

Get Your Business Out of Start-Up Phase by Growing Your Team

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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By Michele Scism

In the past week, I have read the results from three different surveys that all say that time and time management are the biggest hurdles entrepreneurs face.  I think this is especially true in the beginning (or start-up phase) where there is so much to do and there aren’t any systems created to actually get the work done.

In today’s post, I’m going to show you how to put the systems and people in place to quickly move past the overwhelming “start-up” phase to the much more satisfying (and profitable) growth phase.

So, here’s the bad news… you cannot move into the growth phase if you are doing everything in your business yourself.  After all, you only have 24 hours in a day – and there is only so much you can accomplish by yourself.

Here are a few ideas about how to move your business into the growth phase. Read more

Benefits of Niche Marketing – Cindy Schulson, Featured Expert

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Cindy SchulsonWhen you market to a specific niche, you can focus your marketing resources.

You understand the needs and language of your niche, so you can communicate better with them and speak directly to their situation.

By focusing on a niche, you become an expert at providing your service or product. And as an expert, you command higher fees and leverage your efforts to create multiple streams of income. Read more

Kathleen Gage – Creating a Lifestyle Business

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Kathleen Gage, Featured Expert – The street smarts marketer! Creating a Lifestyle Business

Many people talk about creating a business that allows for full expression of who they are. Few accomplish this.

There are three main components to achieving a level of success that can be defined as a Lifestyle Business.

  • Watch this seven minute video to discover what these components are and how to make them work for you.ideal business: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEmsHtBmn-k[/youtube]

Kathleen Gage

Kathleen Gage is an internationally recognized Internet Marketing advisor who works with socially conscious entrepreneurs, speakers, authors, and consultants who are ready to turn their knowledge into money-making products and services.

Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You?

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Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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GUEST Post by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)
Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

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