Young businesswoman sitting at desk yawning. Four Tips to Make Your "Dull" Business Shine.

Too Boring for Social Media? Four Tips to Make Your “Dull” Business Shine.

Behind every successful company lies a good marketing strategy. But what if your company is about as interesting as listening to Ben Stein sell Visine? Boring businesses are a reality, but they don’t need to be a marketer’s nightmare. In fact, plenty of companies are marketing “boring” businesses successfully. What’s their secret? Try their four strategies for boring business success!

Change Your Thinking

Think that great marketing requires a hot product? Since most products and services don’t fall into this category, you have to know that’s not true. Letting a “boring” business model discourage you may mean you’re being too literal and you need to think outside your self-imposed box!

Take BlendTec for example. I don’t know about you, but I would never use the word “exciting” to describe a blender.  Show me a commercial focused on the actual features of the blender and I leave the room to refill my drink. It’s boring.

However, BlendTec’s marketing strategy is anything but boring. Products are marketed …

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Ten Blogging Tips for Beginners

Ten Simple Ways to Get More People to Your Blog

Need to get more visitors to your blog?

One visitor recently shared with us that his biggest marketing challenge is “writing blog posts and understanding what I need to do for proper SEO/SMO”.  He downloaded our Perfect Blog Post Checklist, so we know he’s now well on his way, but we felt we could address the idea of SEO for blogging more directly.  SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization) both have as their aim driving more traffic to a website or blog.

Traffic – Generating Blog Tips

Write Good Stuff

OK, this should go without saying, so it doesn’t get a number .  Write something that people want to read about.

#1 Know Your Keywords

The Google AdWords Keyword Tool can help you determine which words and phrases to use.  Another method is to respond to an urban legend or commonly posted and reposted erroneous message on Facebook and use some of the exact phrases you see used over and over.

#2 Use Your Keywords

Use your keywords near …

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How to Write the Perfect Blog Post

Nothing is perfect, you say?  Well, maybe not, but your blog posts can be awfully close! Before you write anything, make sure you have a good topic.  We’ve written extensively on how to find great blog topics. Ready to write? Let’s go!

Do Your Research

Not with a view to using other people’s content, but to gather facts and ideas.  You’ll cite those in your article or as “related articles” at the end of your post, so keep track of them. Make sure that any statistics you use are recent. Check your keyword list and choose one or two you’ll feature (Don’t have a keyword list? We can help.)

Create a Powerful Blog Post Title

Use your keywords, but naturally. Will it draw in the casual browser? Don’t be afraid to be a bit provocative. Avoid using a confusing or irrelevant title. You may attract attention, but not of the right variety! “How to…” and “Ten Ways to…” “Why …

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Never Run out of Blogging Ideas Again – Ten Tips

Some days the ideas flow freely.  Other days, nothing.  Print this one and put it on the wall and you’ll never run out of blogging ideas again!

Learn from Your Own History

Look at your website analytics and see which articles get the most attention with the lowest bounce rate. Google analytics now blocks access to more than half of the keywords that lead people to our site, so we find it more helpful to look at our most popular pages.

Because we are in the social media industry, our most popular posts tend to be “How to” articles, particularly about Facebook (our post about converting a Facebook profile to a page continues to be a hot topic).

Debunking Common Misconceptions and Urban Legends

You know it when you see it – that alarmist rant that shows up on your friend’s Facebook updates or in your inbox. It’s usually about some villainous company, a baby-snatching eagle or other over-the-top claim. Our post examining whether Facebook was requiring page owners to pay to get …

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Add a Custom 404 Page Not Found Error Page

Have you ever clicked on a link that leads nowhere, or typed in a URL just a little bit wrong?  Well, it happens to us all!  And when we do, it’s nice to have something other than a generic, “404 Page Not Found” error to look at.

Why is it called a “404″?

A 404 page is called that because in response to a request for a missing page, webservers send back a HTTP status code of 404 to indicate that a page is not found. Exciting, huh?

Why Create a Custom Page Not Found Page?

A custom 404 page is an opportunity to show your company’s personality with an apology, a little humor, and suggestions to help the visitor find what they were looking for.  After all, the very last think you want them to do is to leave!

Elements of a Good 404 Page Not Found Page

Say you’re sorry or acknowledge the problem (even if it’s not your fault, you’re acknowledging the inconvenience). Give suggestions for finding the desired content. Add a search option if possible. This …

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