If you’re happy with a small audience that shapes up as something similar to that shown in this infographic, and that is sometimes the case for low-key, personal bloggers, then you can feel free to surf away from this article now. If, on the other hand, you’re a blogger looking to take the next step to a bigger audience, guest blogging may be just what you need to get that extra burst of targeted traffic.

Guest blogging is the act of publishing your content on a competitor’s blog in the interest of gaining valuable exposure with new readers and on new platforms. Here are a few easy steps to help you get started with guest blogging:

1. Seek out the top bloggers in your niche

Guest blogging on a blog less visited than your own obviously won’t do much to increase your readership and so it’s important that you take the time to identify the absolute best bloggers in your niche. Once you determine the best of the best, make contact and see if they may be interested in having you contribute a guest post.

2. Create well-written content that is enjoyable to read

Enjoyable content is content that not only provides the reader with the information that they are seeking, but makes obtaining that information a pleasant experience, leaving the reader with a mind to return for more in the future. In the interest of having your article approved for publishing and reaping the rewards, make this post the single best you’ve written to date!

3. Take advantage

The idea behind guest posting is giving your blog a boost in traffic so begin work right away to capture those added visitors, making them loyal, returning readers well into the future.

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

3 Ways to Get Started With Guest Blogging

Have you ever thought about going green, and then thought, “why bother?” If you have, we’ve got the answer: because you can make money! Most people don’t stop to think about ways they can make money by being green, or even realize that the possibility exists. Here are five ways that you can make money simply by living green:

Work From Home

It sounds quite simple, doesn’t it? Working from home as a means of making money from your green lifestyle? But, think about it, by not having to drive back and forth to work each day, you’re reducing the amount of emissions you release into the atmosphere. By stocking your home office with green supplies and energy star equipped technology, you’re taking complete control of your business surroundings. Making money online takes very few environmental resources; it’s the ultimate green job!

Re-selling

Have your children outgrown their clothes? Do you have a closet full of “stuff” that you haven’t used in years? If so, hold a yard sale and sell them. A yard sale is a great way to go green and make money at the same time. Rather than toss all of your used items in the trash, only to have them take up valuable space in a landfill, you’ll be putting them to good use by selling it all to people who can use it.

Recycle

There are many ways to recycle and earn money by doing it. You can collect traditionally recycled items like cans, newspapers and glass jars, take them to a recycling center or salvage yard, and sell them for the going rate. You can also take used clothes, and other goods, to consignment shops and sell them there. Recycling to make money isn’t going to put thousands of dollars in the bank, but it may give you enough to pay a bill or two each month.

Grow a Crop

When the weather turns nice, many of us plant gardens and enjoy the benefits of our labor when the weather turns cooler. Why not grow a few extra rows of beans and sell them at the farmer’s market? Better yet, join a food coop and share the fruits of your labor with the local community. When you grow your own food, you have control over the decision whether to use or not use pesticides; a decision that is taken out of your hands every time you shop at the grocery store. People are starting to realize this truth more and more which makes growing your own crops potentially lucrative.

Reward Yourself

Did you know that many grocery stores will reward you for using reusable bags instead of plastic? Were you aware that many office supply stores will give you store-credit for recycling your ink cartridges and old electronics? Find out what types of incentives local stores offer for your green efforts and take advantage of them. Even if you aren’t given cold, hard cash, the store incentives can save you a great deal of money.

If you’ve been looking for a reason to finally go green, we think you’ve found your answer: money! Chances are that you won’t become a millionaire by become environmentally aware, but you will put a few extra dollars in your pocket. So what are you waiting for? Go green and get paid!

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

5 Ways to Go Green and Earn Some Green [Guest Post]

What does it take to manage PR crisis successfully? (Image © sellingpix - Fotolia.com)

Almost every public relations professional will have a moment during her or his career where they have to deal with a crisis situation. Sometimes these crises are smaller—the firing of an employee or a change of company policy. Unfortunately, these crises can be much larger—such as inappropriate safety precautions leading to the death of an employee or a massive employee layoff. When these crises do occur, it is often up to public relations practitioners to solve the problem. Here are a few pointers.

Prepare ahead

You can’t anticipate even a percentage of the crises that may come your way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t prepare in advance. When preparing your crisis communication plan, try to anticipate problems that may come your way. For example, a mall or other public place might prepare a crisis communication plan for a shooting on their premises. Like any other communications plan, your crisis plan should take into account your key publics, their self-interests, and the objectives of your organization.

Having a crisis communications plan will help you to feel more confident when crises do arise. Knowing you have a plan in the filing cabinet for the situation you are facing (or a similar one) will reduce your panic level.

Consider the WHO

In any crisis situation, try to take into account who will be affected most or interested most in what your company has to say. This often will include your own employees (for example, in a layoff). Sometimes you will have time to actually write your thoughts down on each of these “key publics.” Other times, you will be forced to do this mentally on the spot.

Once you feel familiar with the needs of your key publics, jot down key messages for each of them. Again, sometimes you will be forced to do this on the spot. The less key messages you have the better. I would recommend that you have no more than five—even better if you can keep it to three. Don’t be afraid to use the message: “We don’t know. . . but we are investigating it.”

Stay calm

Perhaps the easiest piece of advice that can be given in any circumstance (from burning buildings to job interviews), yet this can be pretty tough. If you’ve prepared adequately, then you won’t have to be scrounging around on the spot. Both your consumers and the media can recognize when you’re nervous—and they often capitalize on this opportunity to throw you curve ball questions.

Don’t try to jump the gun when responding to a crisis. If a press conference is necessary, give yourself an hour or two to prepare yourself (and your CEO if necessary) for it. This may seem obvious, but don’t sacrifice your organization’s integrity for your desire to get information out immediately. Don’t speculate. Again, if you don’t know something, say, “I don’t know.” Make more information available as it becomes available. Even a disaster can turn into a positive PR opportunity, depending on how you handle it.

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

How to Manage a Public Relations Crisis [Guest Post]

What do you have to do to build a successful blog? (Image © sellingpix - Fotolia.com)

Do you know that successful blogs share the same characteristics? Do you want to know the secret of a successful blog? How can it generate massive traffic and keep multiplying that traffic day after day? How can it generate massive profits to its owner? Here are 5 most important characteristics of a successful blog:

1) Successful Blog Entertains the Readers

If you have good and entertaining posts, you will have a successful blog because your readers will recognize your blog as an interesting place to visit. They will become your loyal readers and will be likely to recommend your blog to their friends.

As a blogger, you should be able to entertain your readers while helping your readers solve their problem. Whatever the reason the readers come to your blog, you must provide them with interesting and helpful contents. Use your own unique writing style in every post you write.

2) Successful Blog Informs the Readers Effectively

Even though you are not a teacher by general definition of “teacher”, you are teaching when you are blogging. You are giving tips and guidance for your readers regarding what they should do in a specific situation. You are giving step by step tutorial regarding what your readers need to know. You are sharing what you know with your readers. Basically, you are teaching your readers through your blog.

A successful blog informs the readers effectively, which means you transmit the information to your readers in the most effective and interesting way. A good blog will make the readers want to know more and make them curious to find out more.

3) Successful Blog Is a Community for Like-Minded People

Yes, you read it right. Successful blog is a community for like-minded people. Any successful blogger will respond to the readers’ feedbacks. He will communicate with the readers and build a good relationship with them. If the readers want further information regarding your post, they will likely post a comment. A good blogger will gladly answer any questions or concerns asked by the readers.

Successful blog is an active discussion platform where the readers actively participate in the discussion. This is what makes a successful blog different from a dead blog.

4) Successful Blog Has Compelling Posts

The most important ability for a successful blogger is an ability to write quality and persuasive content. Compelling posts will win the heart of the readers and will likely move them to buy what you are offering. A successful blog has great headlines and contents. It is structured solely to entice the readers to read more. They are willingly spending their valuable time reading your blog posts because they found your posts worth their time. So, this is the last characteristic of successful blog: it is compelling.

5) Successful Blog Gives You Inspiration

No matter what is your niche, you have to be able to inspire your readers. Without giving them inspiration with your content, your blog won’t be able to stick in their head. Successful blogger has an ability to craft a blog post that will inspire as well as educate their readers.

When you are able to insert those 5 most important characteristics of a successful blog to your blog, you will transform your blog into one of the most successful blog on the internet.

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

5 Most Important Characteristics of a Successful Blog [Guest Post]

Businesses of all sizes know all too well how beneficial a press release can be. Not only are they a great way to spread the word about your company’s successes, they are also a quick and easy way to build traffic to your website.

They can also prove to be a big waste of time if not written correctly. There are a number of differences in writing press releases to your standard website copy. Take note of and utilise these methods, to guarantee a lasting impact with every press release.

Headlines

As with any online copywriting, an eye catching and interesting headline is the key to attracting readers. If someone is browsing a website for nothing in particular, you need to give them a reason to stop and read your press release.

Headlines should be kept brief and to the point. Include your keywords and company name as close to the beginning as possible. A headline in a press release should arouse curiosity whilst maintaining an objective tone.

Summary

The summary is a 3-4 sentence introduction to your press release. This should cover your main points, but still encourage people to read on. The summary doesn’t always appear on your press release. More often than not it is featured on the website landing page and is the first glimpse people will have of your information.

Include your keyword phrase and a HTML link to your website in the summary. This is beneficial in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO). If you’re a small business with little or no experience in this, it’s advisable to enlist the help of a seo company. They can help you with your keyword research and the best way to use keywords online.

Opening Paragraph and Body Copy

You don’t have to be a journalist to write engaging and exciting copy. Reintroduce your press release; even repeating the summary if you’re stuck for inspiration. Set a clear and objective tone to let the reader know exactly what they can gain from reading on.

The body of your press release should loosely cover all information, but don’t give too much away. You want readers to click your links and visit your website, so give them a reason to.  Remember also to speak in the third person and not sensationalise.

You are not writing a sales piece, it is an announcement of your achievements. Make sure any claims you make you can back up with factual evidence. Cover your main points and lead into a quote from an authority on the matter.

The Importance of Quotes and Evidence

Follow up your opening statement with a quote from yourself or a third party. Keep this as a short and effective sound bite. If you have more information, use quotes throughout the press release to support the points you make.

You should also support all of your points with fact based evidence. This can be a recent study or a third party authority. Keep these short and factual, don’t sensationalise – a press release focuses on a newsworthy event so bare this in mind when writing.

Press Release Ideas to Get You Started

If this has filled you with inspiration but you’re not sure where to get started here are a few subject ideas:
•    New website/member of staff/client/premises
•    An award you have won
•    Launch of a new product
•    ‘Piggybacking’ on current events as long as they relate to your business
•    Seasonal promotions

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

The Easy Way to Write a Press Release like a Pro [Guest Post]

A search for SOPA on Google displays such results. Google+ pages are displayed at the right - the place otherwise reserved for ads.

Even for more general terms, such as 'marketing' Google displays people and pages on Google+.

Some of the featured people and businesses on Google+ deserve to be there – these are prominent web personalities. However, the move is detrimental for small businesses and people, who are equally skilled as Seth Godin, for example, but not as popular with communities on any social networks. As a general rule, self promoters get a big popularity plus, while other marketing experts, who avoid the “me, me, me” approach to personal branding, are stuck in a loser scenario.

As much as popular people and communities deserve our accolades, is it fair for Google to push them in search results? You have to understand that Google doesn’t push these people and brands out of pure altruism, but to bait and hook more users to Google+.

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

In Your Face: Google Promotes Google+ in Universal Search Results

Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

According to Google, the algorithm change will affect less than 1% sites globally, meaning that in less than one in 100 searches, a typical user might notice a reordering of results on the search page. The good news for publishers who have too many ads above the fold, is that Google does re-crawl sites that decide to comply with the new rules and update their pages to display content first. But:

If you decide to update your page layout, the page layout algorithm will automatically reflect the changes as we re-crawl and process enough pages from your site to assess the changes. How long that takes will depend on several factors, including the number of pages on your site and how efficiently Googlebot can crawl the content. On a typical website, it can take several weeks for Googlebot to crawl and process enough pages to reflect layout changes on the site.

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

Google Algorithm Change Takes Aim at Ads

Copy & Paste The Code Below

<br /> <a href="http://www.mezzmer.com/"><br /> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/RP7bz.jpg"/><br /> </a><br /> <br /> <small>Created by Mezzmer <a href="http://www.mezzmer.com/">Eyeglasses</a></small><br />
As you can see, those wondrous tools you use to stay connected can be a real pain in the neck, or worse, if used improperly. The good news is, slight adjustments in the way one operates smart devices can make all the difference. Now excuse me while I rub my own eyes.

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

Time for Common Sense Smart Device Use [Infographic]

1. Make it easy with visible social share button

Install social share button in your website and make it visible and inviting. It will make it easy for your visitors to share your website content. In fact, it will increase the chance for your content to be shared in social media platforms by your visitors. It is reasonable because if your website doesn’t have social sharing button, people will be too lazy to type your website URL just to share it to their social media friends.

2. Encourage visitors to share

It is important to remind your visitors to share your content. This is because most people will forget to share your content if you don’t mention it. Many successful bloggers do this method to encourage more people to share their content. And this method is often works. In fact, if you don’t remind your visitors to share your content, people will just leave your content after reading it.

3. Make it short and valuable

Social media users are in a rush every time. They want everything quick. At least, this should be acknowledged in your mind. Therefore, most people will not take the time to read your lengthy content in their social media platform. The only way to add more readers from social media platform is to make your content short and valuable. It means that you have to make your content worth reading so that your social media friends will at least take some time to read your content.

4. High quality content and catchy title

High quality content is the most important requirement to make your content worth sharing. Also, you should always write catchy titles so that your shared content will be read by the people in social media. Include a catchy title in your content so that people find your content interesting. In fact, the only content that will be shared by your website visitors is content with catchy title.

5. Give reward to those who share your content

This is probably the most effective way to motivate people to share your website content. By giving rewards to those who share your content, you will motivate people to do it. The rewards can be anything, depending on your website. If you are a blogger, you can offer your special report to them. If you have ecommerce website, you can enter them to drawings where they can win your prize. What you need to do is to make your reward interesting so that people will be motivated to share your content.

Those are some tips you can follow to encourage people to share your website content. If you apply those tips, you will be able to drive traffic from social media platforms even without any marketing effort on your part. Let your visitors do the marketing process.v

Do you want to get more information on the author? Karen contributes to SellMyCarSanDiego.com where you can also get some useful information on cash for my car in San Diego.

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

How to Motivate Your Website Visitors to Share Your Website Content [Guest Post]

Lots of us look upon the idea of working from home with envy, yet it's not always a bed of roses and certainly doesn't suit everybody.

With the number of people working from home increasing every day this is a good time for VOIP providers. UK companies are only just beginning to recognize the benefits they get for allowing key members of staff to work from home several days a week.

When it’s successful, working from home can be ideal for both the worker and their employer, but it does mean that the individual needs to be strongly self-motivated and not afraid of their own company. If you want to make a success for working from home there are a few things you need to be able to deal with.

Social Interaction

If you are a very sociable person then you may miss the office gossip and having someone with whom you can go for coffee and lunch. The first few days or even weeks of working from home can be a novelty, but for some people that novelty eventually wears off and you are stuck with yourself. Some individuals are quite happy working alone day in and day out, while others find it more difficult.

Motivation

While individuals may be in regular contact with their team leader, something that’s possible because of VOIP providers, home workers may find it difficult to set their own work schedules. When you are working in an office with a group of other people and a team leader the motivation structure is there and you just get on with the job. When you work from home it is up to the individual how they structure their work day and apart from an instant message or Skype call, you have to motivate yourself.

Separating Work and Home Life

Making a division between work and home life is not easy. As soon as people realise you are going to be at home all day they want to use you as a parcel collecting service, dog walker and coffee provider. Unless you set strict guidelines around your work for yourself and everyone else, working from home will be difficult. If you are going to get the work done then you have to learn to discourage visitors and use an answer machine to screen phone calls.

Setting aside a designated workspace is important if you want to be successful at working from home. If you have a spare room that you can use that would be ideal because when work time is finished you can simply shut the door on it, just as you do when you leave the office.

Is Working from Home for You?

If you can adapt to setting your own schedule, getting on with the job and dealing with interruptions, then working from home might be a good choice for you. If you need social stimulation then go to the local coffee shop at lunch time to get your people fix. If you are happy with your own company and welcome the flexibility that working from home can provide then it just might work for you.

Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations

Working from Home – Is it All it’s Cracked up to Be [Guest Post]