Bringing these two aspects together isn’t always easy, but you can learn how in this article. You aim to please both your readers and Google. Find a good balance between the two, watch your content rank higher, and rake in more website visits.

There’s a sort of formula used to achieve this. A cheat sheet if you will. Let’s dive in and examine how to get the most out of your writing.

Important Pointer: Keyword Research

Keywords are the reason for your writing. Okay, your audience is, but you must adapt your content to what your audience looks for online. That’s the first way to ensure someone will read your blog posts. 

Keyword research will tell you what topics to focus on and the keywords to include in your writing. Choose wisely what you focus on! It will guide where the meat of your text goes and should be as extensive as possible.

So now you know what to write about and should get to the actual writing. Let’s see. What should it look like?

Here are 9 steps to an SEO-friendly blog post.

9 Tips on How to Write an SEO-Friendly Blog Post

Here you’ll learn how to churn out great content.

1. Think It Through

Stop! Don’t just dive in without direction!

What do you want to say? What angle would you like your post to take? Maybe there’s a question you would like to answer? Is there something specific you would like your readers to have achieved after reading your post? 

Some writers want their audience to complete a certain action at the end, so the writing must be compelling and convincing. 

Use your search terms or keywords to find the best possible direction for this. You can look at it as letting your readers guide you.

2. Structure Your Post

Order is essential in a blog post. A basic structure comprises:

• the introduction, where you introduce your topic and give a little teaser to your readers
• the body, where the main story goes
• The conclusion, where you draw a conclusion or give a short post recap.

Figure out what you want to say in every part and write it down briefly. It’ll help guide your train of thought along the way. You want your ideas to flow naturally into each other so your audience can easily follow.

3. Break It Down

Have you ever looked at prose that has no breaks? Or the opposite: content that is in single sentences like a kindergarten storybook. It can be annoying and tiring to read.

Paragraphs help to organize content neatly. Use a different paragraph for every idea, and always summarize your point. Lengthy paragraphs are quite the eyesore and could make your reader skim over your work instead of properly reading it.

Headings add to the structure of an article and will guide readers on what to expect next. Subheadings also add to your SEO ranking. Throw in a keyword in one or two, and it gets even better.

4. Utilize Related Keywords

Utilizing semantic keywords is the best tip on how to write an SEO-friendly blog post. Keywords are great, but using them too many times in a single post makes your work look unnatural. It’s known as keyword stuffing and could make your rankings tank. 

Instead, use synonyms and alternative related words. Google will analyze your content for these, thus understanding your subject matter better. It’s getting smarter and wants readers to enjoy their reading.   

5. Use Transitional Words and Phrases

These show a relationship between different sentences and paragraphs. Phrases like ‘read on’ tell them there’s more to expect. ‘In short’ or ‘in a nutshell’ tells the reader a conclusion is coming. 

Transitional words will help your audience scan through your content since they add structure.

6. Add Links To Existing Content

Have you written on the subject on your website before? Let people know by linking to those other posts. 

You want your audience to focus on you and your work. It makes you look like an authority on the subject and improves rankings. Link to other authority sites, but be sure not to link to your competition.

7. Mind the Length

Google prefers you do lengthy articles, but what do your readers think? Depending on your subject of choice, writing skills, and audience, try to make your posts at least 300 words.

Whether long or short, remember to ensure it’s an SEO-friendly blog post.

8. Utilize SEO Tools

SEO analysis can be tricky but is necessary for this domain. You want your content to have a high chance of ranking well for your chosen keywords.

This is where SEO tools and plugins come in. What difference will they make?

• SEO tools suggest related key phrases. 
• These tools tell you how many times you should add your keywords and where to add them.
• They check your text for readability.
• You can check for both internal and external links in your content.
• They tell you whether you’ve used the keyword on another page so that you don’t compete with yourself for ranking.

All these aspects improve the quality of content you’re putting out. Isn’t that what you’re ultimately aiming for?

9. Put Fresh Eyes on It

Sometimes we write and some mistakes make it past. If you have someone who can look at your work before publishing it, that’s a great asset. They may notice something you missed and improve the whole article. Getting an expert on the subject matter is a plus since they can help refine the content.

Communicating your message to your audience is a necessity in this business. Otherwise, why would you write? Look for opinions on readability and whether the message hits home.

Conclusion

Now you have what you need to create amazing articles for your website. Go ahead and publish as often as possible so that Google knows your website is alive and should rank you higher. Take it a notch higher and use it for business! 

The post How To Write An SEO-Friendly Blog Post  appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

If you stick with us, we are about to show you some useful advertising tips that you can start implementing right away. And guess what: the ones we will cover here today are free, and if not completely free, then budget-friendly. 

Let’s start with the tools you can use to advertise your business.

Cost-free Tools

In a nutshell, the common denominator for the majority of cost-free tools is content. You’ve probably heard the expression: “ Content is the king”. Good content is an absolute necessity. Why? Well, it helps you stand out among your competitors and it emphasizes your value proposition even more. Also, it makes you more visible.

Engage on Social Media

Speaking of free advertising, what better than social media. The major mistake people make is that they don’t engage with their audience or with other potential partners or influencers. Speak up, share your opinion on relevant matters and draw attention when starting a company. 

Promote your blogs, follow other influential people, take part in online conferences, and create polls. Regularly posting quality content, content that your audience will benefit from, is one of the best advertising strategies you can do. And it’s free. In reality, you can hardly make a mistake here. The only mistake you can make is being dormant and just lingering on social media without providing value for your business.

Email Campaigns

Although some people may complain that there are too many emails nowadays, the fact remains that most business communications come from emails themselves. With the help of email automation tools (many of them, like AWeber offer automation in their free plans), you can really keep your clients engaged by creating welcome emails, thank you emails, email newsletters. You just schedule them according to your business priorities and they pretty much do the work for you. They are a great time saver.

Blogging

The power of words, be it spoken or written is undeniable. It’s the strongest “weapon” because it hits directly into the heart. What better way to advertise starting a company than to write blogs? Use your expertise and make a blog easy to read. Make it entertaining while shedding some light on the hottest topics from your industry. 

Blogs are a great way to show your knowledge, engage with your audience and also do some networking. You can present your business, show what sets you apart from your competitors and where your value lies. There are educational platforms for entrepreneurs that post blogs and other educational material. These platforms could be a great place to share your wisdom and attract new customers or build powerful business relationships. 

Word-of-Mouth Advertising

It goes without saying that we live in a digital age, but word-of-mouth advertising should definitely not be underestimated. Why? The answer is very simple: people buy from companies they trust. You know yourself that trust is one of the most difficult things to build because it takes lots of time and patience. 

However, with word-of-mouth advertising that process goes much faster. Your loyal customers will spread the word to their friends, families, and colleagues. Those people would be more inclined to buy from you because someone they trust recommended you. You don’t need to go through hoops to earn their trust. 

You already got yourself a nice foundation on which you can continue to build your business relations. And although it isn’t directly linked to advertising, don’t forget to reward your loyal customers. Show them how much you appreciate them.

Partnership and Branding

When you are a small business, partnering with other respectable brands can make you more visible and attract more leads. At the same time, don’t forget about your own brand. Your brand is your ambassador. Thus, it needs to be in line with your business mission and value proposition. The key is consistency so that people can start connecting the brand with you. Consistency in this case equals trust and a sense of security. 

Moreover, it makes your business more memorable. In order to achieve consistency, make sure to use the same “voice,” the same visual branding across all social media channels. Emphasize your (key) value proposition so that the next time somebody sees your logo, for example, they immediately recognize it and know what to expect.

Internal Communication

All the advertising tools that we presented in the lines above are there to help you grow your business and connect more with your target audience. However, you should bear in mind that all these tools can’t compensate for the lack of internal communication in your company/team. It is essential that you nurture this type of communication in order to really create a high-quality working environment. 

This environment will further impact the work processes, and ultimately, the way you deliver your product. To think that the relations within the company/team don’t affect the relations with your customers would be a huge mistake. 

The statistics clearly show how important this aspect is and how often we neglect it. If you are unsure where to start from, check these internal communication examples from companies like Amazon, Netflix, Starbucks, etc. You can also check the statistics while you are at it. It will give you a great(er) insight into the importance of internal communication.

Try implementing some of these advertising tips for small businesses. They can set you apart from the competition without blowing your budget or your time.

The post Starting a Company: Tools for Advertising and Communication appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Tracking internet usage, desktops, and the times your workforce is at their desk are obsolete methods. Instead, transparency, empathy, and teamwork are essential for remote employees’ productivity and creativity.

1. Remote Work Monitoring Means Setting Task Deadlines

Definitely set deadlines. However, we suggest going one step farther. Consider your work as a process and a structure, not merely a series of tasks. Unless your team understands the complete scope of their actions, every monitoring activity will focus on one single outcome rather than directing your entire team towards a common goal. Therefore, a decent framework is the objective. Tasks with deadlines are the means.

2. Remote Work Monitoring Means Following Team Activity

You need transparency when working remotely. However, transparent workflow and goals are only the beginning. After you’ve put your end together, it’s time to include your team and show them the broader picture. That way, everyone on your team understands their role, what you expect of them, and what their deliverables are.

A team effort is a group of people working together striving to achieve a common goal. Including everyone in the evaluation process will elevate your team effort to a new level. If you actually want your team to work together, we recommend periodically checking in with everyone.

3. Do NOT Monitor Employee Internet Use

No. We won’t urge you to invade your team’s personal space when we’re seeing thousands upon thousands of teams go entirely remote, most often working from home. That’s not the way to go.

Crossing the line between transparency and Big Brother demotivates your staff and adds more strain and anxiety to an already stressful situation, https://neurofitnessfoundation.org/xanax-alprazolam/. Therefore, what else can you do? Achieve total transparency.

This means including your staff in every step of the planning process. Further, it means being available for questions, offering advice, and demonstrating your trust. It’s easier to avoid procrastinating or slacking off when every step of the process is out in the open.

4. Do NOT Monitor Employees at Their Desk

No way! Instead of stalking your employees, create a system of rules and processes that will help them better manage their time outside of factory hours. If all else fails, you can check to see if your remote crew is all seated. Objectively, it shouldn’t come to that.

For example, you may always plan for your team to be online at the same time to do multi-person tasks. This can include things like meetings, reviews, seminars, refinements, and brainstorming. Therefore, organise these events in the team time slot, and allow your team members to plan their own activities.

If your team isn’t meeting their daily targets, it’s time to consider a stricter work schedule. Before do that, however, chat with your team about their challenges and why they aren’t achieving their goals. There are clearly more compassionate approaches to reaching monitoring goals. We can thank transparency for that.
Bravo, transparency!

5. Supervising Remote Employees

Again, openness is the best form of monitoring. However, we’re not talking about the kind that requires a screenshot every thirty seconds. Or, heaven forbid, invasive tracking technology.

Again, this is a great opportunity to show your leadership skills. You do lead a team, right? Here’s how to make supervision more human: involve your whole team. Define a method that allows everyone on your team to validate and provide feedback.

A common aim is one of the cornerstones of every team. Therefore, after incorporating everyone in planning and tracking, why not involve them in the validation phase?

This is especially useful when your team is interdisciplinary and members may provide valuable input and analysis of other people’s work. If they can’t, it’s a terrific method to honor and spotlight each team member. Making concerns visible makes it much more satisfying when the results receive widespread recognition.

6. Daily Report Summary

Your team may lose sight of daily completion or goals when focusing on several assignments. However, your daily summary shouldn’t just be a list of the completion of tasks. It can be so much more.

Your daily report can also help you identify areas for improvement and prospective challenges. In addition, it can highlight the activities your team needs to take to achieve or overcome them.

Your daily summary can take any shape you like. However, a regular team meeting is a great method to ensure everyone is on track and every task is verified. That way, there are no misunderstandings.

Help Your Remote Employees: Simplify Productivity

The bottom line is that remote employees will focus on work better if they know what you expect of them, and they know you have their back. You can’t possibly supervise them personally every few minutes. The intrusiveness would be unbearable!

The greatest solution is to engage your staff transparently. In addition, hold them accountable for their work regardless of when or where it is done. So long as it’s done on time, it should be acceptable. This method saves money, time, and keeps your employees productive and happy.

Image Credit: Olia Danilevich; Pexels; Thank you!

The post 6 Ways to Handle Remote Work Monitoring appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Blogs must not just function by your own will, but with a plan. Listed below are six simple business blogging guidelines that will help you create a great blog.  These will allow you to connect with customers and potential customers in a way that’s engaging and answers their questions.

1. Define your blogging goals.

Before you begin blogging, it’s essential to define the goals that you want your platform to accomplish. This will help you to develop a content strategy and show you where to focus your efforts. To define your website’s goals, you must answer the question, “Why are you blogging?”

• Driving foot traffic to your business?
• Increase sales or generate leads?
• Educating customers and prospects about your business guidelines?
• A behind-the-scenes look?
• Attracting potential customers from outside your area?
• Brand identity?

To be effective and focused, a blog content strategy should include at least two to three of these goals. It’s important to remember that your goals should be specific.

2. Keep it up.

Regularly updating your blog with new content is essential for your business and for it to appear active. This will help your website rank higher on search results.

There aren’t any clear guidelines on how often your blog should be updated. However, it depends on your goals. Here are some tips for business bloggers.

HubSpot states that if your main goal is to increase organic traffic, you should post regularly. This would translate into approximately 3-4 times per week for small businesses. If you want to increase awareness about your small business, then posting only once or twice per week is sufficient.

3. Do keyword research.

Although blogging about your business topics is a good idea, it’s important that your content targets the search terms people are using to maximize its reach. Keyword research can help you find these search terms.

The ideal key phrase is one that has high search volume, low competition, and is relevant for your business. Your blog will rank higher in search results and attract more traffic if you include these keywords in your title and body.

4. Try to write blog posts of the ideal length.

Although there are no guidelines, you should limit the length of a blog post to a certain word count. It is possible to create traffic to your website or generate leads by writing longer blog posts. According to most recent numbers, for search engine optimization, the ideal length of a post is between 2100-2400 words and for lead generation, it’s around 2500 words.

There are many types of blog posts and they all have different lengths. Blog posts answering questions should not exceed 1300 words and should be kept to under 1700 words. How-to posts should contain between 1700 and 2100 words.

These lengths will make your content more visible in search results. However, engaging content can be created that is higher quality, informative, and includes relevant keywords that are easy to find for your audience.

5. Include visual elements.

Images and videos make pages more interesting to visitors. They also help increase attention spans. Research shows that people retain 65% of information when it’s accompanied with visuals. Only 10% are retained if the information is not accompanied by visuals.

Infographics and charts can be used to increase the time users spend reading your blog posts and help them remember its content.

6. Create a blog content calendar.

Birdseye-view content calendars can help you avoid writer’s block by providing a structure to follow. It also makes consistent blogging easier by helping you visualize what you need to do.

Although all of these tips for business blogging may seem overwhelming, they will help you create a framework to your blog that ensures that your content is timely and reaches your target audience. You’ll be amazed at the positive impact they have on your business and blog.

Just think of your post as the friendly neighborhood bulletin board where people can post their ideas and comments. This gives customers the feeling of the personal touch, even with big companies.

These guidelines are meant to encourage the average small business owner. Blogging platforms such as WordPress are extremely user friendly today. Anyone with normal intelligence and a half hour to spend each day can put up a blog, one that will drive business your way. And don’t forget to constantly check out your competitor’s blogs! Chances are you’ll be able to pick up some good stuff there, too.

The post Guidelines for Beginners at Small Business Blogs appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

You might be asking yourself why you should write on someone else’s website. The answer is because guest posting offers huge benefits for you and your company. You can follow cherryscustomframing for guide to be  the productive blogger. A few of the top benefits are listed below.

Immediate Exposure to Your Targeted Audience

By writing for well-known websites, you will have the opportunity to add a link to your website, lending credibility to what you say and the services you provide. Because of this, you will be able to better reach your target audience. If you have written a good quality post, you can receive a huge amount of traffic back to your site.

Gaining website traffic to your online business or a blog is really important for sales to increase. And doing something as simple as guest posting shouldn’t be seen as a time-consuming activity if you get amazing results for your company in return.

Builds Trust of Your Brand in the Industry

If you want to build your expertise in your industry, guest blogging will allow you to reach more people, which in turn will help them learn about and trust in your brand. Sharing what you know on a topic with valuable facts strengthens how others see your content.

For example, millennials don’t trust in brand ads anymore. In order to target that audience, you can write great content, thus building authority and trust in your company.

Helps In Building Relevant Backlinks

The importance of guest posting services also comes back to your website’s presence on Google. The more you guest blog, the more links you get back to your website, and the more easily people will find you.

It would help if you also make sure that you are specific with your information to have relevant backlinks. Context plays an important role in your writing, so ensure that your guest blogging is straightforward and sensible for you and the site owner.

Brings Awareness To Your Brand

Another great benefit that guest posting can bring you is producing an awareness of your brand. After all, people put money on something that is visible to them online. With so much completion out there on the internet today, it is highly important to have guest blogging on your side so your brand can reach out to as many people as possible.

You can start by writing for a few websites to create a name of yourself and stay relevant, so no one forgets your name, thus impacting your brand awareness.

Offers Constructive Feedback from the Community

When writing a blog post on other sites, you can be exposed to comments and feedback people leave. That is a great benefit for you because it can help you build strategies and ideas according to what the audience likes or dislikes.

People online often share their views and experiences in the comments section of a well-written post. This actually means that you have access to unbiased, constructive feedback. Get more info at millsriversdaschool .

Gets Your Brand On Social Media

The use of social media is a great additional benefit of guest blogging. You want your brand to reach as many people online as possible and social media places a huge part. One thing that helps you is signing an agreement with the blog you are writing for that you will share their website on your social media account if they do the same in return. 

Also, people sharing your content on the website like Twitter and Facebook can create a great chance of gaining new followers and visitors on your post, leading them to your website.

Each advantage that was shared with you today works in the benefits for you and your brand, so why not look for guest posting to increase the awareness of your brand or company. 

The post Top Benefits of Guest Blogging appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Although effective content marketing is the key to web traffic, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Are you producing high-quality content that for some reason isn’t getting results? Have you been pulling your hair out trying to discover what’s wrong with your content?

If you feel your content truly is valuable to your audience, perhaps you don’t have a content problem. Instead, you might have a distribution or a viewability problem.

Many marketers don’t think about the importance of effective content distribution. The reality is that good distribution is just as important as the quality and value of your content. After all, if no one discovers your award-worthy content, few people will visit your website, become leads, or convert to paying customers.

Content Distribution Methods to Invest In

Here are a few content distribution methods and platforms that have been proven effective.

1. Content Distribution Platforms

If you’ve never used a content distribution platform, your content might not be getting the attention it deserves. How do these platforms distribute your content? They partner with large media outlets such as Time and CNN, and then place your content on such sites in the form of native ads.

You’ve probably visited highly-trafficked sites and stumbled upon content sections titled “Recommended for You,” or “From Around the Web,” or “You May Also Like.” The articles and videos in these sections look like editorial features, but they’re actually promoted content from a content distribution platform.

And the best part? The readers who come across your promoted content are already interested in what you’re offering. It’s all thanks to sophisticated algorithms used by the content distribution platform.

The rise of content discovery is significantly impacting the online-search industry, and its growth will most likely continue well into the future.

2. Facebook Ads

Facebook has over 1.4 billion monthly users. And of the 50 million small-business Facebook Pages, 2.5 million of them are Facebook advertisers. Is your business one of them?

Facebook advertising is a highly-effective way to distribute your content to a large audience who will find your offerings relevant. The pay-per-click format offered by Facebook is very controllable. Even low amounts like $100 or even $50 can attract attention to your content.

Facebook’s Ad Manager offers some of the best targeting on the planet. With the ability to target almost any kind of audience, you’re able to focus on those who are most likely to view and share your content.

Tips to consider:

• Besides creating Facebook Ads, another cost-effective way to reach more people is to boost Facebook posts that contain your content.
• Join relevant Facebook Groups, and share any content you’ve published and advertised.
• For extra momentum, create Instant Articles on Facebook to promote your content.
• Pin your best content to the top of your brand’s Page.

3. Twitter Ads

With 320 million monthly active users, Twitter offers marketers significant content-distribution opportunities. And like Facebook ads, Twitter advertising can be effective without spending an exorbitant amount of money. Several Twitter ad campaign types are available, including:

• Website clicks campaigns
• Followers campaigns
• Engagement campaigns
• App campaigns

In your Twitter campaigns, shoot for running five or six promoted tweets simultaneously. And to keep your campaign relevant and fresh, add some new tweets to the campaign every week.

Other tips to consider:

• In your content, encourage your audience to follow you on Twitter.
• As with other platforms, adding images and video makes your content more engaging on Twitter.
• When your audience shares your content on Twitter, retweet them!
• If your content included names or thoughts from any influencers, mention them on Twitter. With any luck, they’ll retweet the content.
• Keep your tweeted content pinned to the top of your tweets.

4. Email Marketing

Yes, this traditional method of content distribution is still effective and dependable. When done right, email marketing (such as newsletters) delivers excellent ROI and helps you maintain a strong connection with your audience. It’s also an effective way to regularly spotlight your brand, products and services. And as an important bonus, email marketing is known for being highly shareable.

When using email marketing to distribute your content, remember that traditional methods like “batching and blasting” aren’t effect today. (This is the tactic of blasting your entire email list with the same content regardless of your audience’s past web-browsing behavior or purchase history.) Instead, it’s far more effective to incorporate tactics like email segmentation, and geo-targeting.

Other tips to consider:

• In your emails’ signature line, add a link to more content you’d like to promote that week. Include a message like (“Check out my recent article on…”)
• Try to sponsor an email newsletter within your industry so you can feature some of your content in it.
• Ask an influencer with a large email audience if they’d share a piece of your valuable content with their audience. Their audience will benefit, and it could lead to more traffic to your website.

5. LinkedIn Direct Sponsored Content

According to a report from the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. While LinkedIn’s popularity for marketers is well known, many people don’t realize that only around 20 percent of your followers see your LinkedIn posts. Direct Sponsored Content is a good solution.

Direct Sponsored Content allows a brand to distribute content to larger audiences on LinkedIn, while also targeting audiences by LinkedIn groups, skills, location, age and gender.

Also, unlike regular Sponsored Content, “Direct” Sponsored Content does not show up on a company’s LinkedIn Page. This allows brands to distribute as much content as they want without cluttering their Company Page.

Other tips to consider:

• Create status updates about your content.
• If you included the names or ideas of any influencers in your content, tag them in your LinkedIn status updates.
• Share your content in your LinkedIn groups who’d find the content valuable.
• Write a post on LinkedIn Pulse with a link to your content.

6. SlideShare

Smart content marketers convert their content into SlideShare presentations. Why? With millions of content-hungry users on SlideShare, it’s the most well-known slide presentation platform in the world. Consider these staggering facts:

• 70 million people around the globe are active on SlideShare.
• It’s a trusted source. Users know that many respected authorities and influencers, in several industries worldwide, are found on SlideShare.
• SlideShare can be used for lead generation.
• With a domain authority of 95 and page authority of 79, SlideShare offers excellent SEO.

Tips to consider:

• When re-purposing your content, create a single slide to feature your content’s main point. Use subsequent slides to further develop the main point.
• Make sure your images are attractive.
• Don’t be afraid to use as many slides as needed to make your presentation valuable.
• Add calls to action at the presentation’s close.

7. Quora

Your brand creates knowledgeable content that addresses many questions people in your industry have. If only there were a platform that enables you to find these questions! Of course, such a platform exists.

Quora is a popular question-and-answer platform with 1.3 million visitors each month in the U.S. When users type questions into Quora, they see search results for their questions that have already been asked by others – as well as answers from experts. If their question has never been asked on Quora, they can submit the question themselves.

One excellent way to use Quora for content distribution is to search for questions that your content answers. When you find the right question, you can then repurpose your content into a clear answer and provide a link to it in your response.

Other tips to consider:

• For effective branding, write a Quora bio that conveys your knowledge and experience. Your readers will see your bio every time they read your answers.
• Follow any Quora topic you have expertise in. You’ll receive email updates when new questions have been asked within those topics.
• Perhaps this should go without saying, but make sure your answers are always useful and never spammy.

Although this is not an exhaustive list, it covers many of the proven distribution methods that get results. If other platforms have worked for you, don’t stop using them! The more distribution methods you use, the better. The goal, of course, is getting your content into the hands of as many relevant audiences as possible.

If all these distribution methods seem like a lot of work, that’s because content distribution is a lot of work! But its importance can’t be overstated. In fact, it has been said that content is no longer king. Distribution is.

Like everything else in business, there are no shortcuts in content marketing or distribution. It takes consistent effort, research, and creativity. But the good news is that those who make content and distribution a priority will be rewarded with a loyal audience and a healthy ROI.

If it all starts to feel exhausting, think of the end results. When your hard work has earned you an audience and high web traffic, you’ll be thankful you put in the time and effort.

The post 7 Content Distribution Methods That Boost Web Traffic appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

How do you know which experts are worth following? I’m glad you asked, because you’re about to be introduced to some of the world’s most trustworthy online marketers.
The following influencers are trusted and well known by many brands across the world. So whether you’re a seasoned marketer wanting to keep up with the latest trends, or you’re just starting out and looking for advice, you can learn from these gurus.

In no particular order, here are some online influencers to remember:

1. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is the well-known online marketer behind such popular resources as Kissmetrics, Quick Sprout, Crazy Egg, and Hello Bar. His current focus is on Kissmetrics, a tool that tracks and analyzes customer behavior on clients’ websites.

Many of the most renown companies in the world have sought his expertise, including HP, Amazon, GM, Viacom, and NBC.

Notable recognitions for Neil include being called a top influencer on the web by The Wall Street Journal, and one of the top 10 online marketers by Forbes. Even more notably, President Obama recognized him as a Top 100 Entrepreneur Under 30. He was also awarded Congressional Recognition from the House of Representatives.

How to follow Neil:

Neil’s Podcast: Marketing School. “Marketing School brings you 10 minutes of actionable marketing advice every single day. Get the right tips to take your business to the next level.”

Twitter

Neil’s blog

2. Ann Handley

Regarded as the world’s first Chief Content Officer, Ann is the head of content for MarketingProfs – a training and education company with the largest community of marketers in its category. She’s also known as a pioneer in digital marketing. She co-founded ClickZ, one of the original sources of interactive marketing news.

Ann has been recognized by Forbes as the most influential woman in Social Media. She’s also been called one of the top 20 women bloggers by ForbesWoman. She frequently contributes to the LinkedIn Influencer program and Entrepreneur magazine.

Ann is the author of Everybody Writes, which is “your go-to guide to creating ridiculously good content that attracts and retains customers.” She also co-authored the best-selling book, Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business.

How to follow Ann:

• Twitter
• Ann’s blog
• Ann’s contributions to Entrepreneur

3. Christoph Cemper

Christoph is an SEO guru and a top online marketer. Often speaking an SEO and Digital Marketing conventions, Christoph has earned himself a name as a.founder LinkResearchTools, LinkDetox and Impactana to help SEO professionals and online marketers get better results.

You can find Christoph valuable advice frequently on MarketingLand, SearchEngineJournal and SearchEngineWatch where he shares his insight on the latest happenings in SEO and Online Marketing.

How to follow Chris:

• Twitter
• Christophs’s blog

4. Sujan Patel

Sujan is a high-energy growth marketer and a digital-marketing influencer with a “passion to help people and solve problems.” He has over 13 years of internet marketing experience.

Sujan is the co-founder of Web Profits, a growth marketing agency that helps companies leverage the latest marketing strategies to fuel their businesses. Web Profits has offices in the US, Australia, Singapore and Romania. They also employ over 20 design and development experts, and over 30 copywriters.

Sujan has led the digital marketing strategy for companies such as Mint, Sales Force, Intuit, and many other world renown brands. He’s also a prolific blogger, writing six blog posts a week. He blogs for publications like Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Inc.

He’s also a partner in software companies such as ContentMarketer.io, Narrow, Quuu, and Mailshake.

How to follow Sujan:

• Twitter
• io blog
• Web Profits blog

5. Rebecca Lieb

A content strategist, content marketer, and digital marketing innovator, Rebecca Lieb has been at the forefront of digital advertising and media since it all began. She’s been a corporate trainer to companies such as Facebook, Pinterest, DuPont, Adobe, Nestlé, Fidelity, Home Depot, Cisco, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Save The Children, and more.
Rebecca is also respected for publishing a substantial amount of original research. Some of the research includes a significant body of work on the topics of content marketing, content strategy and converged media.

In 2011, she authored Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher – How to Use Content to Market Online and in Social Media. It was one of the first books on the subject of content marketing. She’s also the author of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization, which became an instant Amazon bestseller.

How to follow Rebecca:

• Twitter
• Rebecca’s blog

6. Matthew Toren

A specialist in strategic marketing and advertising, Matthew has many other areas of expertise as well: Business development, business growth techniques, entrepreneurial emergence, entrepreneurial strategy management, innovation and new venture creation.

He’s the owner of iSmallBusiness.com, and describes it like this: “iSmallBusiness.com is small business with a mission: to make the important stuff for your small business front and center.” The site posts valuable information that inspires and assists entrepreneurs in starting, managing, and growing a small business.

An innovative author, Matthew is also well known for an award-winning book for kids that he and his brother, Adam, wrote together. Titled Kidpreneurs, the book won the Gold award for kids’ books from NAPPA (National Association of Parenting Publications.)

He also co-authored Small Business Big Vision with his brother. The book won the Small Business Book Awards in 2012.

Among other projects, Matthew also co-founded Blogtrepreneur.com, the #1 rated small business blog on the web.

How to follow Matthew:

• Twitter
• Matthew on Entrepreneur
• Matthew on com

7. Aaron Orendorff

An independent content strategist and copywriter, Aaron helps both emerging and established businesses produce clear, compelling content. He specializes in advertising copy, including banner copy, Facebook ad content, LinkedIn copy and Google AdWords. He also focuses on website copy and editing, mottos and taglines, branding development, product descriptions, long-form articles, email content, and newsletters.

Aaron also serves as a full-time faculty member in Klamath Community College’s Arts and Communication department in Klamath Falls, OR. He teaches several writing, communication, public speaking and philosophy courses that train students for higher education.

He’s a contributor at Lifehacker, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Inc., Business Insider, The Next Web, Content Marketing Institute, Success Magazine, Copyblogger, MarketingProfs, and others.

How to follow Aaron:

• Twitter
• iconiContent blog

8. Avinash Kaushik

Avinash is a web analytics specialist and the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google. Known for putting a common-sense framework around the complex environment of web analytics, he helps marketers leverage data to reinvent their digital existence. He’s the creator of the popular blog Occam’s Razor, and he’s written two bestselling books – Web Analytics 2.0, and Web Analytics: An Hour a Day.

Avinash is the Chief Education Officer and co-founder of Market Motive Inc., a resource that teaches digital marketing from Silicon-Valley based industry experts. He has worked with world-renown brands such as Time Warner, Dell, Unilever, Porsche, IBM, and Vanguard. He’s also lectured at universities like University of California – Los Angeles, University of Virginia, Stanford University, and University of Utah.

How to follow Avinash:

• Twitter
• Occam’s Razor blog

9. Ian Cleary

Ian is the founder of RazorSocial, the world leading site on social media tools. It’s “dedicated to helping others become insanely productive and efficient in online marketing through the use of online tech and tools – so no entrepreneur gets left behind.” RazorSocial’s training programs teach businesses and marketers how to create a digital marketing engine that builds a consistent stream of profitable leads.

With 20 years in technology and digital marketing, Ian was listed as the 8th most influential person in social media globally by Onalytica. He’s also been the winner of the annual “Best Social Media Blog” award by Social Media Examiner for the past four years.

Ian has been Published in MarketingProfs, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, VentureBeat, Social Media Examiner, and many more. He’s also a professional speaker at marketing events such as Social Media Marketing World and Content Marketing World.

How to follow Ian:

• RazorSocial blog
• Twitter

10. Diane Rayfield

One of the first 40 people worldwide to become certified in social-media marketing, Diane is a true social media pioneer. She’s the founder of Harp Social, and she believes that behind every visible brand is an expertly-engineered and executed social media strategy. Her focus is on helping businesses implement a sound social media marketing strategy through social-media best practices.

To quote Diane: “Today most clients have social media but have no idea how to optimize it, how to benefit from it and really, don’t have the proper resources to maintain and grow their social presence. That’s where I come in with a strategy, content plan and community management plan based on each client’s goals and budget.”

Diane also provides customized social-media training. From training on optimizing LinkedIn profiles to instructing on how to leverage social media platforms, Facebook marketing, Twitter, or Google+, all of her classes are interactive.

How to follow Diane:

• Twitter
• Harp Social blog

11. Amber Naslund

Seasoned marketing executive Amber Naslund has a deep understanding of how social media and digital communication impacts organizational culture and operations. Amber says, “I believe social media is a catalyst for change – not the solution in itself – and that marketing has an unprecedented opportunity today to drive change within our businesses.”

She’s presently the SVP of Marketing for social intelligence platform Sysomos. Her role is to create value for customers and community through content development, customer success and engagement programs, employee engagement initiatives, social strategy, and industry thought leadership.

Throughout her 15+ years of marketing expertise, she’s served as the president of SideraWorks and VP of Social Strategy for Salesforce Radian6. She’s advised such Fortune 500 companies as Coca-Cola, American Express, L’Oreal, Dell, AMD, Kraft Foods, CDW, Avaya, and others.

Amber is the co-author of The Now Revolution. This bestselling social-business book is used by companies and universities to teach a strong foundation for social strategy. She also delivers keynote speeches on corporate culture, social business, and communication at industry conferences and private events every year.

How to follow Amber:

• Twitter
• Amber’s blog

12. Vanessa Fox

An influential blogger, SEO consultant and author, Vanessa Fox says “I’m particularly interested in the intersection and evolution of how we interact with the world offline and online.”

She’s the CEO Keylime Toolbox, a fresh approach to understanding SEO. The resource includes a comprehensive reference library and tutorials. It features important SEO metrics and actionable insights for improving qualified traffic from unpaid search.

Vanessa is also a part time lecturer at University of Washington. She teaches an undergraduate class at the iSchool about search engine optimization, searcher behavior, and the search engine industry. She’s also on the University’s Informatics Advisory Board.

She authored Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy. The book has been called the “first must-read-to-survive business book of the twenty-first century”.

How to follow Vanessa:

Vanessa’s blog

Twitter

13. Ehsan Jahandarpour

Ehsan Jahandarpour is a globally recognized growth hacker, and influencer marketing strategist. Forbes listed him as top 20 growth hackers in 2016.

Ehsan is known for his innovative approach towards growth hacking, and earned-media strategies. He helps companies like Microsoft, PETRONAS, BBDO, etc. to scale their business and grow faster.

If you want to learn about influencer marketing, and growth hacking, Ehsan has been sharing his actionable strategies on his blog, his growth hacking webinar, and authoritative magazines such as Entrepreneur magazine, Inc, Huffington post, business2community, business.com, socialmediatoday, etc.

How to follow Ehsan:

Twitter

Ehsan’s site

14. Pam Moore

Pam is a passionate marketing, social media, and branding enthusiast. With over 15 years of experience building brands and communities, she’s been included in Forbes Top 5 Social Media Women Influencers, Forbes Top 10 Social Media Power Influencers, and Forbes Top 50 Social Media Influencers.
She founded Marketing Nutz, a full-service social media, digital marketing, experiential branding agency.  Her services include marketing & strategy, social and digital quick-start consultation, social-media services, branding and creative services, and training workshops.
Pam is also a dynamic keynote speaker at worldwide events, as well as a trainer, best-selling author, consultant, and a strategist who “has the guts to tell you what you may not want to hear but must hear to drive results.”

She co-authored a book titled Relationship Age: The World’s Leading Experts Teach You Proven Strategies for Creating Profitable Relationships in the World of Social Media.

How to follow Pam:

• Twitter
• Pam’s blog

15. Krishna De

Krishna is an influencer in the fields of marketing, social media, personal branding, and online reputation. She’s a mobile brand journalist, a keynote speaker, mentor, live-stream strategist, and a mom to three girls on top of it all.

In her digital marketing mentoring, she works with client agencies behind the scenes to help them understand how to integrate their inbound marketing. In her social media consulting, she helps clients communicate social media policies and frameworks, and helps deliver social media communications programs.

Krishna also helps her clients with mobile and micro content creation, as well as live stream strategy and training.

Besides helping her clients boost their marketing and social business success, she also leverages her experience by speaking at industry conferences across Europe.

How to follow Krishna:

• Twitter
• Snapchat

The post 15 Top Online Influencers You’ll Want to Start Following Today appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Using Google Analytics to Track Social Campaigns

Even though there are several social media management tools, the richness of Google Analytics reports make it ideal for tracking your social campaigns. Did you know that you can use Google Analytics to track network referrals, conversions, landing pages, and social plugins? This article tells you how to get started with Google Analytics, set up goals, and five top Google Analytics reports to look at to understand how your social media campaigns are going.

Click to read How to Track Social Media Analytics with Google Analytics

Recovering from a Sales Slump

Unfortunately, everyone will experience a sales slump at some point in his or her career. Biz expert Adrian Miller says the first important thing is to understand why the slump happened so you can address the cause! However, if you find yourself in a slump, there are plenty of things you can do to recover. Adrian reviews four of the best things you can do to get the sales ball rolling again.

Click to read How to Revamp Your Business in a “Sales Slump”

Small Biz Owner: Don’t Focus on Going Viral

The gold standard in content marketing is a phenomenon known as “going viral” – when your content (whether it is a blog post, video, social media message, or something else) gets the attention of mass audiences who flood to your site and “discover” your company, making you an overnight sensation. While going viral is definitely a good thing, there are many reasons why small business owners should not focus on going viral. This article explores the reasons and what small business owners should do instead to make sure their content is a hit among the target market.

Click to read Content Marketing 2016: Why Small Businesses Shouldn’t Focus on Going Viral

Smart Hustle Magazine is committed to helping small business owners through all the twists and turns of running a business – the high points (like going viral), the low points (like experiencing a sales slump), and all of the experimentation that goes on in between (including tracking campaign analytics on platforms like Google Analytics). For more advice – no matter what stage of the game you’re at – check out SmartHustle.com or join the discussion in the Smart Hustle Community.

The post Smart Hustle Recap: Google Analytics How-To, Recovering from a Sales Slump, and More! appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

It’s GREAT that me, you and millions of others can now Tweet more stuff. It’s great that we can expand from “micro blogging” with 140 characters to “full blogging” with thousands more characters.

However, here’s what’s not so great.

Having a LIMIT on what you can write in Twitter has forced all of us to THINK and be better writers. Snap Chat and Instagram’s SHORT videos force us all to be brief and succinct and be focused on our message.

Snap Chat and Instagram’s SHORT videos force us all to be brief and succinct and be focused on our message.

140 character limit stimulates our creative writing. We think in “hash tags” sound bites.If you only have 140 characters then you need to really be creative about how you’re going to deliver your message.

If you only have 140 characters then you need to really be creative about how you’re going to deliver your message.

So, when you get the chance to write 10,000 characters on Twitter, force yourself to THINK like 140 characters and you’re writing will be better.

There’s room for long form writing, of course. But there’s also a beauty in short writing that has a strong message. Seth Godin does both of these quite well.

The post Twitter Says Good Bye To 140 Character Limit. Here’s Why It’s Both Bad and Good. appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.