Ideas for Business

In my experience with business blogging, certain types of posts seem to attract links more than others. If you want to get more links, it makes sense to publish these types of posts. Here are 7 of them.

1. Lists

If you look at any popular social voting site (like Digg, BallHype, Mixx, or kirtsy), there’s a good chance you’ll find one or more list posts on the front page.

We humans just seem to have an affinity for lists. Maybe it’s because we’re social creatures. Lists are a great conversation piece. We all have our opinions so it’s fun to debate the top 10 movies, albums, sports players, etc. I bet even our ancient ancestors talked about lists. Maybe the top 10 cave paintings or 12 interesting ways to start a fire.

Also, lists have the ability to attract our attention quickly. Glance at the covers of a magazine rack and you’ll see article titles like these:

• Many Happy Returns: 14 Tax Preparation Packages to Guide You Through Taxing Times (PC Magazine)
• 100 Most Beatiful People in 2008 (People)
• How to Build Big Arms in 5 Easy Moves (Men’s Fitness)
• 16 New and Sexy Hairstyles (Cosmopolitan)

2. Glossaries

A glossary is list of definitions for the jargon in your niche. Glossaries attract links because they are a necessary resource in every industry. Every industry has newcomers that want to learn more about the industry. However, these newcomers often get stuck in the learning process because they don’t understand the common terminology.

Bloggers often get asked these type of questions, “What does [industry term] mean?” If you create a glossary, they can link to you and help their readers understand the jargon.

3. Images and Videos

Posts with images and video get a lot of links because they stand out from the crowd. Most bloggers only use text. This leaves a lot of traffic on the table because most people on the internet are visually oriented. Surveys show that most people don’t like to read. Instead, they would rather watch TV or a movie.

I wrote about images and video in the following posts, so check them out for more information.

• Drastically Improve Your Blog Posts By Adding Images
• 5 Reasons to Add Video to Your Business Blog

4. Tutorials

One SEO expert stated that her favorite method for getting traffic and links was to create an in-depth tutorial and then promote it in social media.

Relevant tutorials get lots of links because many internet users are looking for content that shows them how to do a certain task. They want the content to show them step by step how to accomplish their task.

5. Metaphors

When I say “metaphor”, I’m talking about posts that connect two seemingly unrelated topics. Here are a couple examples:

• The Kurt Cobain Guide to Startup Success
• It’s Like Finding Mr. Right: 7 Things I Learned in the Search for the Perfect Jeans
• The Ultimate “Lost” Field Guide to Writing a Better Blog

Metaphor posts are attractive because they jar our mind into making unique connections. We get curious and check out the post to find out how the blogger combined two seemingly unrelated things.

6. Humor

If you’ve got a great sense of humor, try showing it in your blog posts. Historically, humorous content has done a good job of attracting traffic and links. Glance at any social media site and you’re likely to find a lot of humorous pieces.

Also, humorous content often spreads virally because people like pass it around through IM, links, and email. For example, think about all those funny email messages that get forwarded multiple times.

7. Stories

The best-selling book Made to Stick gives six ways to communicate your ideas so that they will survive and spread. One of those ways is to use stories.

Everyone loves a good story. Since the beginning of time, we’ve told each other stories. Stories entertain, touch our emotions, help us understand and remember ideas and concepts, and connect us with each other.

Observe any group of people hanging out and you’ll find them telling stories. With the internet becoming more social, it’s a good idea to find out the compelling stories in your industry and then communicate them on your blog.

Over to You

Have you written any of these types of posts? If you have, feel free to leave a link of the post in the comment section.

Happy New Year one and all. I realise it’s a couple of months since I wrote anything remotely lengthy and [...]

If you have read some of the comments on this blog and our user review site, you may have noticed that some individuals have been unhappy with the surveyhead panel. Here is a little background on SurveyHead.

Surveyhead is an online survey panel is a product of the United Sample Network,  a company that provides online sample services to the market research community. United Sample was founded in March, 2008 by Matt Dusig and Gregg Lavin, who were previously the Co-founders of goZing.com.  They owned and operated goZing from 1999 until 2005, when they sold goZing for $30 million in cash to a public competitor. They then founded UnitedSample in March 2008.

I recently spoke to a representative of United Sample about some of the issues our visitors were having, and here is what he had to say about his panel, and its efforts to improve the panel.

“United Sample recently took on funding from a top tier Venture Capital firm.  They are using the funds to better target surveys as well as to increase headcount.  The sales team In particular is growing quickly which means a much greater number of unique surveys and other market research projects”

“United Sample recently made some key hires to their support / customer service team.  The result will be faster payments and conflict resolution for all survey takers.  Our goal is to respond faster than any other market research firm in the near future, we’re putting the team in place to accomplish that goal.  Growth has been tough to keep up with though so continued patience is appreciated for a bit longer”

Having joined the panel myself I do know that Surveyhead is a little rough around the edges, but I have seen some improvements with the panel recently. Plus, they have made every effort to update me with their latest news and help our readers that have requested help from us.

Please share your comments below if you are a member, and if you wish to join here is the link to Register with Surveyhead.

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Business writing is something that most business owners are able to do. We all learned how to write a formal business letter in high school and most of us still retain the basics of that training. Plus, there are samples online that you can take a look at. So many small business owners don`t even consider hiring out their business writing, which is a huge mistake.

There are several reasons you should consider business writing if you are a small business owner.

Money. Yes, you have to spend money to have someone else do the writing, but chances are it will end up being cheaper in the long run. It`s very tempting to do everything yourself, but if you can focus on the more specialized tasks, this will earn more money over time.

Expertise. Sure, you can write a formal letter, but is it a good one? Will it convince people to do what you want them to? A professional business writer will be able to craft a message that most laypeople would have difficulties creating.

Time. There is not enough time in the day to get everything you need to done. That`s why it`s important to realize this early on and start outsourcing so you can get it all finished. Otherwise, without help, you`ll find that you are running around and always behind, not a good way to run a business!

Outsourcing your business writing is a good idea, but it`s not the only thing that can be done by someone else. Look at all the tasks you have to get done in a day and then figure out which ones you could let someone else do for you. You`ll be more relaxed and still get more done.

In a previous post, I wrote that one of the sites in which I have some ownership, MidoriLei.com, would be getting good press coverage. I finally got notification of the article about us. We were part of a giveaway yesterday where we gave away one of our dresses.

I was definitely pleased by the result. As of right now, the giveaway post has almost 600 comments so I’m sure many people learned about our site. Yes, we did have to give away a dress valued at $200 but I think it will be worth it. Also, giving away your product to get traffic and links is usually more effective than traditional online advertising methods.

Practical Ways to Leverage Your Press Coverage

Now that we’ve been covered by a reputable high-traffic site, we can use that coverage to add perceived value to our business and attract other website owners to talk about us. Here are two practical ways to do that.

Make sure people know about your media mentions. Whenever you talk about your business to other people, don’t forget to tell them about your press coverage. This will improve the credibility of your business. Also, apply this principle when interacting with other website owners. For example, whenever you email a blogger with a link request, point them to other sites that have linked to you already.

Create a prominent section on your site about your press mentions. This could mean starting an “In the Media” page and giving it a prominent link on your home page. Or you could do what SEO Book does. On the sidebar of their home page, they have logos of the media outlets that have covered them. I wrote about our press coverage on our home page.