Talking About Business

T A L K I N G A B O U T B U S I N E S S A L U N H I L L

March 18th, 2016

Published by: Alun Hill

Talking About Business Talking About Business is a newsletter focussing on businesses large and small.

Driving Traffic to Your Website By Alun Hill on March 18th, 2016

Social media is a fantastic tool to help start conversations with prospects and customers. However, if those customers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t transition to your website then you may not be reaching your

sales and marketing goals. A few tweaks to your social media strategy may help you gain the traffic you desire. #1 Make Your Content Searchable Sites like Twitter allow you to include tags in your posts, aka hashtags#. Pinterest allows you to identify categories and include tags. Use these features in your post so that your prospects can readily find your information. This simple tactic will help attract more people to your social media profile and subsequently more people to your website. #2 Obvious Contact Information

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You might be surprised how many business owners have social media pages and profiles but their website address is a real challenge to find. It’s a simple thing; make sure your URL, email address, and even your phone number are on your site. Be completely transparent so prospects feel comfortable trusting you. Additionally, the more obvious your URL is, the more likely a prospect is to click on it and visit your website. #3 Incentivize Give your social media followers a reason to visit your website. Host a special promotion for them. Give something away,or hold a contest or sweepstakes. For example, you might offer a printable coupon for Facebook followers only. In your promotion, include a link to the promotional page. #4 Value Driven Before you post anything on any social media site, make sure it provides value to your audience. If it doesn’t have a clear benefit, don’t post it. That means often keeping personal posts and business posts separate – unless your personality and personal life are relevant to your brand. Test and track your posts to identify which posts generate the most traffic and interest. Also consider including a call to action and a link in some of your posts, and test and track those as well. #5 Tease Some social media posts should lead directly to your website or blog. Include a few sentences teaser on your social media page and a link to read more. You can do this on any of the social media sites, from 140 characters on Twitter to tantalizing paragraphs on LinkedIn, Google+, and Facebook. There are dozens of tactics for using social media to drive prospects to your website. At the end of the day it requires two key steps. The first is to make sure you’re providing value to your prospects. The second is to test and track your result so you know what works.

Published by: Alun Hill

Differentiating between Profitable Keywords and Junk Keywords By Alun Hill on March 17th, 2016

When doing keyword research, one of the tasks before you is to differentiate between profitable keywords and keywords that are essentially junk. Keyword research starts with an understanding of your target audience, as well as knowledge of your product or service and how it solves problems for and serves your target audience. It’s really an educated guess that you’ll use to get started; then you need to clean and organize the list of words and phrases to help you avoid using junk keywords. How Many Searches? Use a keyword tool like Google Search to establish how many searches there are for a particular keyword phrase or keyword. Use quotes around the keyword phrase to get searches only for that particular phrase. Write down how many pages are returned. A lot of pages returned can mean that the keyword is over used, or depending on the rank of the pages showing up it can show a problem with either the keyword or how it’s being used. How Many Results? Next use Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find out an estimated search volume, the cost per click, and to find out who your competitors are and how many there are. The more search results you see for any one keyword or keyword phrase, the harder it will be to compete. What you want to do is find high demand (lots of searches) low competition (fewer results) keywords. It’s important to dig deeper to find out whether it’s a low competition keyword or a junk keyword. Check the Competition It’s always a good idea in any type of research you do to check what your competition is doing, and that includes keyword research. Google will return some websites that are using that keyword based on page rank. The more zeroes you see, the better. If you see a lot of competition with high page ranks,

March 18th, 2016

Published by: Alun Hill

over 4 or 5, then it will be that much harder to compete using that particular keyword or keyword phrase.

new product and let followers guess what it is, or write a coupon code in the sand and post the image.

Use the Keyword Right

* Show results. Post before and after photos of what your products and services can do. If you’re promoting something that produces results over time, you could even post a photo every day or week to show progress.

The best ways to use keywords are in the titles, anchor text and any HTML based text. If a lot of sites are using the keyword but are not using it correctly, it can be a great keyword to use because a lot of people are looking for it, but the competition isn’t targeting it correctly. You can fill the void. If they are using the keyword right, but the page ranks are still low, it might be because it’s just a junk keyword. Keyword research uses a lot of assumptions, plus the science of numbers, to come up with a scenario that might work. The next thing you can do after determining whether a keyword has potential or not is to run a test. Create content using the keyword correctly, and see what happens.

Creative Ways to Use Instagram By Alun Hill on March 17th, 2016

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and Instagram has done a wonderful job of proving that old adage. This simple app does little more than make it easy for users to share and comment on photos, yet it’s taken the world by storm. Even novice photographers have built a following, giving them a creative outlet that they otherwise might never have had. This is great news for businesses that want to take advantage of Instagram’s popularity but don’t have a professional photographer on staff.

* Have a contest. Post images as clues to a puzzle, and offer a prize for the first person who figures it out. Or ask users to post photos of themselves using your product and have followers vote for their favorite. Any kind of contest will generate interest and help you gain more followers. These are just a few of the creative ways you can use Instagram to promote your business. Once you’ve gotten started and seen what other users are doing, you’ll find many more.

Connecting with Customers through Local Methods By Alun Hill on March 16th, 2016

Using the internet to connect locally with your customers is an excellent way to get to know your customers. However, there is more to it than just being involved with online communities like: * Google Plus communities * Facebook.com * Twitter.com * LinkedIn.com

Building a following on Instagram is less about photographic talent than creativity. Here are some creative ways to use Instagram so that users will take notice.

* Meetup.com

* Go behind the scenes. If you want to make a personal connection with your Instagram followers, offering behindthe-scenes photos is a great way to do so. If you sell products, you can share photos of them in various stages of production. Service providers can share photos of their offices, their desks, or themselves working on a project. Even random photos of you and your staff can be interesting if you spruce them up with a filter and add an interesting or funny caption.

Get involved with your community on a personal level. Show up at offline meetings, volunteer locally, and make yourself known to your local community in person. The days of being invisible and anonymous online are over. Getting involved in schools, places of worship, local businesses, community events and more is an essential component in any marketing effort.

* Show happy customers. Get customers’ permission to take their photos and post them on Instagram. Try to get a photo of them using your product if possible, and include a short testimonial in the caption. * Pile on the cuteness. Photos of kittens, puppies, babies and other cute beings are always a hit. Find a way to work the cuteness factor into your photos, and your followers will love you for it. * Give a sneak preview. Use Instagram to introduce a new product or promotion. You could take a super-close-up of your

* And others…

It doesn’t matter if you have a retail business, a service business, or a completely online information marketing business. Establishing your expertise with locals should be an essential component in your marketing plan. Use the online communities as an avenue to collaborate on local face-to-face meetings and events, rather than be “the event” itself. To connect with customers locally: * Join the Chamber of Commerce – Don’t just join; get involved. Go to business after hours events and other events. People love doing business with others that they know, and if they see you often enough at events they’ll be more likely to

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not only use your products and services but also to recommend them to others. * Become a local news resource – Reporters have to work very hard finding sources for stories. Whenever you see a story where you can offer a new angle or more information, contact the reporters involved. Give them your number and email address and offer to be an open source of information to them regarding your expertise and they will call you often. * Create a local shopping incentive program – Even if you sell products and services online, creating a local shopping incentive program will endear you to the local people and help you increase your own local sales. * Become a local speaker – Many groups and cities have speakers bureaus; create a “one sheet” and get on the lists. A one sheet is a document that helps speakers market themselves in a simple format. * Teach a local class – If you know how to do something that others might want to know how to do (be it blogging or making soap), you can often teach a class via your “lifelong learning center”, via another group like a women’s center or business group, or even by renting a place and doing it on your own. * Host local events – Whether it’s a charity or a business event, becoming a host for local events is a great way to connect with local business owners and your target audience. Consider your target audience before choosing which types of events to host. Just like with all your online endeavors, you want to be seen and heard in as many different areas as you can where your target audience is. If your audience is there, you need to be there too. Ensure that your business name, your name, and your products (and/or service names) are seen and heard everywhere. By building support and recognition in your local community through connecting with people using local marketing methods, you’ll increase your expert status, make more sales and enjoy your business even more.

Published by: Alun Hill

Why Your Website Is Your Best Digital Asset By Alun Hill on March 16th, 2016

No matter what people think, the website is still your most important digital asset when it comes to digital marketing. In fact, as has been touted for years, your website is the center of your entire online marketing endeavor. Everything you do should seek to send people straight back to your website, and then on to an email list. The main reason why your website is the most important is that you own it. 1. Social Media Can Be Gone Tomorrow – It’s not likely, but any one social media account could change drastically when you wake up in the morning. It can go from free to paid, it can also change the rules, and so much more can happen. All the hard work you put into building up that social media network with content and engagement could be all for nothing tomorrow. 2. You Own It – If you have a self-hosted website (whether it’s built with WordPress platform or another builder), as long as it’s self-hosted on a server you rent, you can move it and use it how you want to without interference or worry from someone else telling you what to do. Even if you lose all social media accounts tomorrow, your website will still be there. 3. It’s a Destination – You’re really expected to have a website today if you have a business. If you send people to a Facebook page instead, they will not see it in the same way as they do a real website that represents your business and only your business without distraction. You can use the website to direct people to other media, but your website is first and foremost your storefront. 4. Everything Leads Back to It – Everything you put out there on the web, on social media, in brochures, your business card, books, games, apps, guest blog posts, bookmarks and other marketing collateral all lead right to your website because that will never change. Your website will always be your website. 5. You Control it – When you own something, you control it. You can update it, change it, move it, and do whatever you want with it. When you use builders like GoDaddy Website Builder or native builders that can’t be moved, you’re trapped in that space and rebuilding is harder to do. You can have as

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many features, email addresses, sales pages and more if you control it, and it’s not hard to do. 6. They’re Inexpensive – Having your own website is not expensive. You can buy a domain name for less than 15 dollars a year and hosting for less than 10 dollars a month. The only expense left is having someone build your site if you don’t want to. But, with self-hosted WordPress you can easily find someone for less than 1000 dollars to build it, or you can pick a theme and give it a go on your own. It’s not hard – at least give it a try. (Hint: If you can use one of the native builders, you can use self-hosted WordPress.) 7. It’s Your Brand – When you own your own website, you can brand it how you want to. You don’t have to leave any “built by” notes up, or notifications about your hosting company or anything. You own it; it carries your branding. It’s really that simple. 8. Customers Judge You – If you don’t own your own website and use a builder or try to pass off a social media site as your destination, people will judge you. They’ll believe you’re not a serious business owner and will not want to work with you. Instead, create the best website you can within your budget and reap the benefits. Owning your own website in order to market digitally to your clients is an imperative in today’s online marketing world. Without it you’ll be wasting a lot of time and money on building up someone else’s empire. Why not build your own?

Business Budget Busting Mistakes and How to Recover By Alun Hill on March 16th, 2016

Controlling your cash and staying on budget is one of the most important elements of surviving and thriving in business. Yet, even the most financially savvy people make mistakes. Understanding these mistakes can help you avoid them, and should you make them, the following information can help you recover more quickly. Mistake #1 Not Having a Budget Okay, this is perhaps too obvious of a mistake but it’s a common one nonetheless. People are gung-ho to make a budget for their household finances, but they become negligent when it comes to their business finances. Create a budget using whatever tools necessary and stick to it. Mistake #2 No Emergency Savings Business emergencies arise unexpectedly, just like personal finance emergencies. You need a new shopping cart software; you need to hire a new administrative assistant or your computer dies. If you don’t have an emergency savings account, these unexpected expenses can bust your budget. Mistake #3 Revenue Doesn’t Mean Positive Cash Flow

Published by: Alun Hill

Business owners have a tendency to spend money as they receive it without paying attention to their outgoing expenses. This can be particularly true of self-employed business owners. Revenue doesn’t mean you have good cash flow. And again, this is why it’s important to have a budget. Know how much you have coming in and when it’s expected and know when your bills and financial obligations are due. Mistake #4 Forgetting about Taxes Most businesses need to pay quarterly taxes, though some can get away with only paying annually. Yet this tax obligation never fails to take business owners by surprise. Include a tax savings category in your budget and set money aside each month to cover your financial obligation to the state and federal government. Mistake #5 Not Automating and Creating Financial Systems Simply creating a budget isn’t enough. Ideally, you’ll assess that budget on a monthly basis to make sure you’re on track. Small changes can make a huge difference to your cash flow. Automate as much as you can using budgeting applications and software. And speaking of cash flow, make sure to stay on top of yours. Not paying attention to your cash flow, which is literally the flow of cash into and out of your bank account, can cause you go have to borrow to make ends meet. Once the borrowing begins, it can be a challenge to get out of it. Be aware of your finances at all times and use a budget to help you stay in the black.

Why We Need to Change the Way We Think about Millennials By Alun Hill on March 16th, 2016

There is a nasty rumor going on that says millennials are takers, selfish and self-centered. This comes from the fact that most millennials aren’t as private about their personal lives as the older generation was. To them sharing a selfie on social media has very little to do about being a narcissist – on the contrary; it’s just about being social and fitting in. It’s nothing more than a world-wide photo booth like the kind you used to see at parties. No matter what you really think, this generation (those born between 1980 and the year 2000) are fast becoming the largest voting and purchasing block in history – numbering more than 80 million. As they come into their own, it’s up to us to finally start marketing to this generation in a respectful way and in ways that speak to them and their values. They Value Work-Life Balance Millennials grew up with their parents working all the time, and for what seemed like nothing. Since the stock market and economy crashed at the end of 2007, millennials decided

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that they shouldn’t place all their eggs in one basket. They are demanding better treatment at work, and want fair and equitable treatment regardless of sex. They Use Technology Differently While you might get on the phone to deal with someone, millennials prefer not to play phone tag and will email, send a text, or direct message people on social media. They believe it’s far more efficient than making a phone call. This isn’t that they’re lazy either. It’s just that this is the technology they grew up with and what they’re used to doing. If you want them to move in a different direction, you’re going to have to be direct to them about it and teach them to do it. They Are Well Educated You can’t talk down to millennials; you must talk up to them. They are educated, they know where to find information instantly, and they actually do know what they’re talking about. They have enormous student loan debt but they knew that education was important. They’re really lifelong learners and love to consume digital information quickly. They Like Instant Gratification Don’t hand a millennial a huge manual without an index. They like to be able to find the information they need at the touch of a button and are used to doing that. They grew up being able to do that. When they researched a book report, they went to the internet – not the library where they might have to check out 60 books and spend hours combing through them. Now they can comb through 60 books through an online library and find the keywords they’re looking for within minutes. This is not laziness; it’s efficiency. They’re Full of Confidence This isn’t being a narcissist, but they may be a little cocky. Parents raised their children to feel good about themselves no matter their size, appearance or station in life. They expect to be treated well regardless, and this is not a bad thing. But it can be tricky to communicate with someone with such confidence without offending them at times. Millennials are entering into their largest buying generation as you read this. It’s imperative to learn everything you can about them, and try not to judge their actions wrongly. Just as your generation changed things for the generation before, this new, smarter, and more efficient generation will for you too.

Budget Planning Tools to Consider By Alun Hill on March 15th, 2016

There’s no single budget planning tool that’s right for everyone. And if you’re keeping a budget, which is a fantastic way to stay in control of your money, then you want to choose the right tool for you. When you have the best budget planning tool for your needs and style, you’re more likely to create a good budget – and to stick to it as well.

Published by: Alun Hill

How do you plan? What materials do you usually use and are they successful? For example, do you plan your daily task list on a piece of paper or a pocket calendar? Or do you use a software program or a mobile application on your smart phone? It’s not uncommon for people to embrace both paper and digital planning. You might first create a daily task list on paper and then transfer it to your digital calendar. That’s fine too. What’s important here is to know what generally works for you and to apply that style to your budget planning system. Pen and Paper Options If you’re a pen and paper person, there are many budget planning tools you can utilize. They include (but are not limited to): * Templates – You can find an abundance of budget templates online. These templates are printable. This means you can print them out for the year, three hole punch them and keep them in a handy three ring budget binder. * Handmade – Another method is to simply make a list each month of your budget categories on a piece of lined paper. You might use a composition book to keep your monthly budget organized and accessible. * Spreadsheet – If you prefer pen and paper but you want the functionality of software, you might utilize a simple spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. You can create categories and columns to keep your information organized and you can copy the information onto next month’s worksheet to make each month’s budget creation quick and easy. Once your worksheet has been created, print it out, punch it and place it in a three ring budget binder. Digital Options We live in a digital age, which means if you prefer digital budget planning then you have an abundance of options. * Spreadsheet – The same spreadsheet you printed out can be left on your computer and used digitally. In fact, you can create simple equations to calculate your monthly overages and extra cash. This is a simple way to embrace technology. * Applications – If you utilize a smart phone for most of your planning, you might enjoy one of the many budgeting applications available. These applications allow you to track your budget in real time and enter expenses as they’re incurred. * Software – Budgeting software programs have been around for about a decade or more. They often involve a bit of a learning curve but can be used to manage your taxes as well. They can also run reports so you can see at a glance where you are often over or under budget. The most important consideration is following through. Find a budget planning tool that is not only easy for you to set up but is also one that you’ll use every day. A budget only works if you use it.

What’s Your Planning Style? Some people prefer pen and paper while others prefer to get and stay organized digitally. Take a look around your home. 6

March 18th, 2016

Who Are Millennial Consumers? By Alun Hill on March 15th, 2016

Pew Social Trends (pewsocialtrends.org) defines millennials as people born between 1980 and the year 2000. But, it’s how you were raised, and your familiarity with the culture into which you were born, which truly defines whether not you’re a true millennial. Yes, you have to be born between 1980 and 2000 to fit in to that demographic, but the other traits shared by millennials are important too. They Grew Up with the Internet Well, at least what they can remember. The oldest millennials didn’t come into this technology in mass numbers until high school or college, but the rest – it’s just always been there. It’s no different to them than having running water or a TV with 100 channels with nothing on. It’s just always been part of their lives and they expect it to continue. They Love Their Mobile Devices These gadgets have grown and improved during their lifetime. An iPhone today has more memory and use than their dad’s old computer from the 90s. But, they take them with them everywhere, even to bed. They look up everything, watch videos while waiting in line and always have a lot of input and activity going on at all times. They like Transparency Not only do they want it from any one they do business with, they will offer it too. To them complaining is not a bad thing. They just think it’s being honest and truthful. So, if a business oversells something and it doesn’t live up to expectations, they’ll complain loudly and more than likely return it. Instant Gratification In the old days, if you missed a movie at the theater it was gone. Today, you can watch thousands of movies online and you can buy books online and have them delivered instantly. No more shopping several bookstores to find the book. You can even get two-day shipping for groceries. Waiting for anything seems passé. They’re into Equality You might think everyone is, but not like millennials. These people do not care about labels, even labels that define gender. They are into “equal” and what that means and what that stands for and they eschew gender roles and norms. On the whole, they are progressive and don’t care if people are gay, straight, bi, or trans – what’s more, they won’t ask because they really don’t care. Reality over Fantasy One reason reality shows and YouTube shows have such big stars, is because to them reality is a lot more fascinating than fake. Even if some of the reality is fake, it’s okay – because overall it’s real and that’s what matters to them. That’s why they really like TV shows that are more reality based than not. If you really want to appeal to millennials, you’ll need to be real and transparent, and your products need to work. If they don’t, they’ll tell all their friends. And since most of them have

Published by: Alun Hill

far more social media friends than “real life” friends, that could be a disaster.

Branching Your Marketing Out to Mobile Apps By Alun Hill on March 15th, 2016

Companies of all shapes and sizes are finding that marketing with mobile applications can be a tremendous business builder. With the continued growth in mobile technology and the vast number of people buying and using smart phones, this is a trend that will likely continue growing. So the question arises, is it time for you to branch out and embrace marketing with mobile apps? What Can a Mobile App Do for Your Prospects and Is Your Business a Good Fit? Let’s face it, some businesses just aren’t a good fit for mobile apps. Or are they? A business that sells online home design blueprints might not immediately seem like they’d be a good fit for a mobile application. Yet if you dig a little deeper, perhaps a mobile application that helps the buyer walk around the potential home or position the house on their desired land plot could be extremely beneficial for its audience. So the first question is to decide if a mobile application can provide value or benefit to your audience. If you can answer this question then a mobile application is a good fit for your business. The second question, and perhaps the more difficult part, is to ask if it is possible to create your desired application with your resources. It can take time, energy, money and more time to create a top-quality application that will help brand and market your business. That isn’t to say that it isn’t well worth the time and effort. In many cases an application can take a business to a whole new level. What Can a Mobile App Do for Your Business? Before you make any hard and fast decisions, realize that mobile applications can provide an abundance of benefits. At the very basic level it means that a customer who has downloaded and is using your application is engaging with your business on a consistent basis. Customer engagement is fundamental to profits, loyalty, and word-of-mouth marketing. A mobile application also gives you something to brag about and to promote. It can brand your business, increase awareness, and position you as a thought leader in your niche. And while you can charge for your application, you can also give it away for free and sell advertising space on your application. This means that an app can be a money maker for you in a number of ways. The first step is to brainstorm ways you might be able to provide value to your audience through a mobile application. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Think about how you might make it easier to access your products or services or how you can improve customer service. Sometimes the simplest mobile applications have the biggest impact.

March 18th, 2016

How To Produce A Best Selling Book By Alun Hill on February 28th, 2016

Published by: Alun Hill

Challenge 1: Creating shareable content that is also entertaining and engaging Content marketing works best when you get your audience involved in â€˜distributingâ€™ the message by sharing your content with their circle. To ensure that your content is shared, it is important that it is interesting, informative and entertaining to your readers. Creating content that satisfies these aspects is a challenge that may seem difficult to overcome. What you need to do is identify what your target audience is interested in, at present, by keeping track of their purchase behavior, their social media conversations and their feedback to you. Identify the topics that seem to be â €˜in trendâ€™ and create content around them to garner maximum attention and maximum shares. Challenge 2: Making content visible

Get your free copy of my newest book “How To Produce A Best Selling Book”. Have you ever wondered how to produce a beat selling book? I give you all the details – explained, as usual, simply and easily – anyone can follow this book and produce a best seller! It includes chapters entitled “Lessons On Writing From Stephen King”, “Four Tips For Every Newbie Self-Publisher” and “Is There Such A Thing As The ‘Best Time’ To Publish Your Book?” and more.

Three Common Content Marketing Challenges You Should Overcome By Alun Hill on January 25th, 2016

No present day business can survive without investing enough attention to digital marketing. The success of digital marketing hinges on quality content and effective content marketing. Although most business owners understand this universal truth, not all manage to set in place a truly efficient content marketing strategy. The challenges that arise are key reasons for the failure.

Implement These Four Tips When You Are Doing Your Writing By Alun Hill on January 23rd, 2016

No compromise on quality One of the primary objectives of content marketing is to help your brand or your product, list among the top search engine results. To achieve it, you need to incorporate keywords and key phrases into the content. The problem arises when keywords take precedence over the actual content, i.e.: you focus on inserting as many keywords are possible and ignore the quality of the written material.

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What you should know is that with Google’s Penguin and Hummingbird updates, the search engine can now differentiate between content that has quality information to offer and content that is simply spammy or that overuses keywords. The former is more likely to rank better than keyword-intensive text. Give adequate attention to headlines The first thing that your reader sees is your headline. If it fails to grab their attention, it does not matter how well your article is written or how useful it is to them. Invest enough attention in writing headlines that convey a message, pique the curiosity and draw in the reader to invest more time on the page. A good tip is to convey how the reader will benefit from reading the blog or article or web page. For example, “Want to take YouTube by storm? Here is what to do?” Add visual breaks for easy reading You may have great content to share, you may even have an attention grabbing headline ready, but unless your content is easy to read, none of them really matter. Visual breaks make it easy to read text and it is simple to add them to any content. Break up the content into logical paragraphs and use subtitles to convey what the reader can learn from each of them. Make use of bullet points when you have a number of arguments to present or many points to list out. They make it easy to communicate the maximum amount of information with the minimum number of words. Use direct language Using simple, direct language to get your point across to your reader is another often forgotten aspect. Active voice is the best choice for you because it keeps the content uncomplicated and easy to comprehend after a quick glance. Make sure you add call to actions at appropriate intervals and also at the end of the content to inspire your reader to act, at once. Three Common Content Marketing Challenges You Should Overcome No present day business can survive without investing enough attention to digital marketing. The success of digital marketing hinges on quality content and effective content marketing. Although most business owners understand this universal truth, not all manage to set in place a truly efficient content marketing strategy. The challenges that arise are key reasons for the failure. Challenge 1: Creating shareable content that is also entertaining and engaging Content marketing works best when you get your audience involved in “distributing” the message by sharing your content with their circle. To ensure that your content is shared, it is important that it is interesting, informative and entertaining to your readers. Creating content that satisfies these aspects is a challenge that may seem difficult to overcome. What you need to do is identify what your target audience is interested in, at present, by keeping track of their purchase behavior, their social media conversations and their feedback to you. Identify the topics that seem to be â€˜in trendâ€™ and create content around them to garner maximum attention and maximum shares. Challenge 2: Making content visible

Published by: Alun Hill

Millions of new articles and blogs arrive on the internet every week and yours is just one of them. Making your content visible in the crowd is a challenge indeed, but one that you can easily address with efficient search engine optimization. Research the keywords that your audience appears to be using most of the time and utilize them in your content to the right degree. Make sure that keyword usage is not taking priority over content quality and you are on track to get your page ranked high in Google search results. Challenge 3: Writing effective content that results in conversions The objective of content marketing is to enhance your overall sales efforts. It means your content should directly influence your readers to take another step into your sales funnel. In the best case scenario, your readers should immediately head to your site and make a purchase as soon as they read your content. To achieve it, your content has to fulfill two criteria: one, it needs to highlight a need that your reader has, two, it should convey why your product is the right answer to the need. The content has to give a clear message that prompts your readers to view your product favorably or make up their mind about buying your product immediately. Content marketing success hinges on how well you can overcome these challenges and consistently deliver content that entertains and informs your audience. Points To Remember When Authoring Self-help Books When you have succeeded in overcoming a big challenge in life or you have dealt with a difficult situation or event that crushes most people, it is natural that you would want to share your experience so that others can benefit from it. Writing a self- help book is a great idea in such situations. However, it is not easy to write one that is commercially successful as well as truly beneficial to your audience. These are some points you should keep in mind to make your self- help book useful and informative to others who find themselves in your situation. Is the topic relevant, current and really useful? The first thing to do is to review your topic and take a call on whether or not it is useful for others. Some situations that you have experienced and overcome may be common to many people across the world, but others arise only because of a unique combination of circumstances that may not be duplicated in anyone elseâ€™s life. A self-help book is a success when it talks about a problem that affects many people, and there is no evident, tried and tested way to deal with it. Another thing to keep in mind is to research if the subject has already been extensively covered by many other authors. If so, your audience may be highly restricted. Retain focus on your core topic Finding your focus and then staying focused as you progress through the book is a huge challenge when it comes to writing self-help books. These are typically based on your personal experiences and it often becomes a drawback because you tend to meander into experiences that do not have direct bearing on the topic of the book. A good way to overcome the problem is to start the project by making a clear, well-defined outline for your book with chapter headings and a short summary of each

March 18th, 2016

chapterâ€™s contents. Get someone to give you an objective assessment of the outline before you finalize it. Build trust Credibility and trust are keystones to success when you are authoring self-help books. Your audience should feel confident about placing trust on you and there are several ways in which you can do it. One, you can highlight your credentials that show why you are an expert on the topic. Two, you can share your life story to show how you have experienced the same problem and worked your own way out of it. Sharing anecdotes, stories from your life as examples works well to enhance your credibility as an author who knows what he/she is talking about. Lessons on Writing from Stephen King The Master of Horror has been very generous in sharing writing tips through his textbooks and memoirs. If you haven’t yet discovered his tips online, these pearls of wisdom from the prolific author are guaranteed to give you inspiration and point you in the right direction. #1 : Dump the telly. Read as much as you can. Stephen King famously said ‘if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others : read a lot and write a lot’. Television, he believes, is a hindrance to creativity, preventing writers from looking inwards and tapping into their latent reservoirs of imagination. If you’re just starting out, television can be a distraction that keeps you from hitting the ‘x’ number of words you’ve planned to complete each day. It can interfere with your original ideas or make you mentalize too much, affecting the quality and quantity of your output. #2 : Write for yourself. Would you rather write a story that interests you and compels you to read, or pleases someone else â€“ say your potential target audience? King’s answer to this conundrum : write for yourself first, worry about the audience later. As part of the rewriting exercise, he suggests stripping off all the things that are not harmonious to the story. Catering to a particular audience or cashing in on the ‘in’ themes (vampires stories have been done to death) often result in copy-cat works with little or no creativity or novelty. It’s when you go against the grain or find the magic inside you that you can create something unique and exceptional. #3 : Go after things that are most challenging to write. We often struggle to put our most significant thoughts into words. You cannot afford to discount the most important things you want to say by not researching (King draws an analogy between writers and archeologists) and thinking enough about them. A lot of the great works of writing have involved hours of thought.

Published by: Alun Hill

Points To Remember When Authoring Self-Help Books By Alun Hill on January 19th, 2016

When you have succeeded in overcoming a big challenge in life or you have dealt with a difficult situation or event that crushes most people, it is natural that you would want to share your experience so that others can benefit from it. Writing a self- help book is a great idea in such situations. However, it is not easy to write one that is commercially successful as well as truly beneficial to your audience. These are some points you should keep in mind to make your self- help book useful and informative to others who find themselves in your situation. Is the topic relevant, current and really useful? The first thing to do is to review your topic and take a call on whether or not it is useful for others. Some situations that you have experienced and overcome may be common to many people across the world, but others arise only because of a unique combination of circumstances that may not be duplicated in anyone elseâ€™s life. A self-help book is a success when it talks about a problem that affects many people, and there is no evident, tried and tested way to deal with it. Another thing to keep in mind is to research if the subject has already been extensively covered by many other authors. If so, your audience may be highly restricted. Retain focus on your core topic Finding your focus and then staying focused as you progress through the book is a huge challenge when it comes to writing self-help books. These are typically based on your personal experiences and it often becomes a drawback because you tend to meander into experiences that do not have direct bearing on the topic of the book. A good way to overcome the problem is to start the project by making a clear, well-defined outline for your book with chapter headings and a short summary of each chapterâ€™s contents. Get someone to give you an objective assessment of the outline before you finalize it. Build trust Credibility and trust are keystones to success when you are authoring self-help books. Your audience should feel confident about placing trust on you and there are several ways in which you can do it. One, you can highlight your credentials that show why you are an expert on the topic. Two, you can share your life story to show how you have experienced the same problem and worked your own way out of it. Sharing anecdotes, stories from your life as examples works well to enhance your credibility as an author who knows what he/she is talking about.

#4 : Avoid adverbs. ‘The road to hell is paved with adverbs’ tells you how much Stephen King loathes them. He advises against their usage especially after ‘he said’ and ‘she said’.

March 18th, 2016

Published by: Alun Hill

Have You Read These Lessons On Writing From Stephen King?

Is There Such A Thing As The ‘Best Time’ To Publish Your Book?

By Alun Hill on January 17th, 2016

By Alun Hill on January 15th, 2016

The Master of Horror has been very generous in sharing writing tips through his textbooks and memoirs.

Yes, there is; it’s something even traditional book publishers follow to get their books out at the most opportune times, if you will.

If you haven’t yet discovered his tips online, these pearls of wisdom from the prolific author are guaranteed to give you inspiration and point you in the right direction. #1 : Dump the telly. Read as much as you can. Stephen King famously said ‘if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others : read a lot and write a lot’. Television, he believes, is a hindrance to creativity, preventing writers from looking inwards and tapping into their latent reservoirs of imagination. If you’re just starting out, television can be a distraction that keeps you from hitting the ‘x’ number of words you’ve planned to complete each day. It can interfere with your original ideas or make you mentalize too much, affecting the quality and quantity of your output. #2 : Write for yourself. Would you rather write a story that interests you and compels you to read, or pleases someone else â€“ say your potential target audience? King’s answer to this conundrum : write for yourself first, worry about the audience later. As part of the rewriting exercise, he suggests stripping off all the things that are not harmonious to the story. Catering to a particular audience or cashing in on the ‘in’ themes (vampires stories have been done to death) often result in copy-cat works with little or no creativity or novelty. It’s when you go against the grain or find the magic inside you that you can create something unique and exceptional. #3 : Go after things that are most challenging to write. We often struggle to put our most significant thoughts into words. You cannot afford to discount the most important things you want to say by not researching (King draws an analogy between writers and archeologists) and thinking enough about them. A lot of the great works of writing have involved hours of thought. #4 : Avoid adverbs. ‘The road to hell is paved with adverbs’ tells you how much Stephen King loathes them. He advises against their usage especially after ‘he said’ and ‘she said’. Consider this sentence : â€œCome away with me,â€

October to December is anathema, as this happens to be the peak period for the Christmas market when the focus is mostly on gift titles. The start of December marks a flurry of sales as opposed to support, when everyone is under pressure to meet delivery deadlines and react to purchase orders in a timely fashion. So, while the holiday season and one or two months preceding it are excellent times for sales, they’re not the best times to start publishing your book. It’s an even worse time to begin the finishing touches on your book. The editor, formatting professional, or cover designer you engaged at the end of November or beginning of December is quite likely to be unresponsive to your queries during midDecember. Post-Christmas is a strategically good time to publish your book. You can get on January’s pre-order timeline and have some days leading up to Valentine’s Day in February. In February, people are also done settling their credit card bills and more open to downloading books to their e-readers. With the new year upon them, book lovers become eager to sample new writers. The type of book also determines the best times to publish. The market tends to be more receptive to romance, business, cookery and self-help books in the January to April time period (new year resolutions, career changes, attracting new romances). May and June are ideal months for light summer reads, both fiction and non-fiction. September is a good time for crime, paranormal, horror and historical sagas. Another strategy you can explore is timing your book launch with a particular commemorative day of the year, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, International Street Children’s Day, Hug Day, World Autism Awareness Day and the like. It can assist with publicity, especially if you’re after a niche audience. Finally, you can see what books are due for launch on selfpublishing platforms during the week you plan to publish yours. If another writer or writers will be launching books not different from yours or back catalog books of a well-known author in your genre are being re-released, you may want to time your release such that it’s not overshadowed or under severe competitive threat.

March 18th, 2016

Improve Your Approach Towards Writing By Boosting Your Self-esteem By Alun Hill on January 13th, 2016

Your writing can suffer due to many reasons. However, one of the biggest factors that contribute to your determination is your self-esteem. Your self-esteem is the general feeling you have about yourself â&#x20AC;&#x201C; your belief in your abilities, the kind of person you are and your exceptions from yourself in the future.

Published by: Alun Hill

However, if you make an effort to be fair to yourself, you may be able to slowly improve not only the quality of your writing, but also the quality of your life.

How To Write A Self-Help Book That Sells By Alun Hill on January 11th, 2016

Self-help books are the craze today and the number of new authors trying their hand at the genre is a proof of the fact. However, only a handful of them succeed in writing a book that people want to read.

Apart from how it can affect everyone around you, your selfesteem has a huge influence on the way you approach writing.

If you want your self-help book to be a commercial success, there are a few critical points that you should keep in mind.

Given below are some ways in which you can improve your self-esteem and write better as a result:

Be yourself, be real

Know yourself: The path to improving your writing starts with getting to know yourself on a deeper level. Most of the well-adjusted people have a good sense of what they are. Knowing yourself is more than identifying your strengths and weaknesses. You will need to open yourself up to new opportunities, meet new people and try new things to find out what you are passionate about. You may even start a new hobby or a career path! Exercise: Apart from getting to know yourself on a mental level, you will also need to find out your physical limits. People who exercise regularly are not only healthier, but they also have a much better idea of their physical capabilities. Your improved physical health means that you will have more energy to invest in writing. Build relationships with different types of people: The people you meet regularly can influence your daily thoughts and moods. Being around people who constantly criticize you can damage what you think about yourself over time. Take the time and effort to associate yourself with people who stimulate your intellect and make you think about new ideas. It does not mean that you should cut everyone else out. Having good relationships with people from different career paths, religious beliefs, age groups and nationalities can help you come up with more creative ideas. Reduce the effect of criticism: As you meet people and talk about what you do, you will come across some who never seem to be impressed with anything you do. You will have to find a way to reduce the effect of their criticisms on your mental health or become more assertive with them. Trying to make everyone happy with your writing will simply reduce the quality of your work and discourage you from penning your original ideas. Instead, take honest reviews from only a select group of people, who will point out flaws without harping on your mistakes. Your self-esteem is a strong personality trait and it is not easy to make dramatic changes in a short amount of time.

When someone picks up your self-help book, they want to get the feeling that you know what you are talking about. When you over-dramatize the situation/event or exaggerate the impact that it had on you, the book starts sounding more like fiction. That is exactly what you do NOT want. Be real, be realistic and be yourself to convince your reader that you have actually experienced the situation yourself. Your writing should convince them that you do have the personal experience to write a self-help book that can give some really useful inputs to them. Be practical Self-help books may address an issue that is not well defined or structured. They may even discuss a problem and offer a solution for an issue that is not widely accepted or even acknowledged. However, the book and its message cannot be vague or confused and most importantly, it cannot offer impractical solutions to the problem. The expectation of your readers is that they will find an answer to their problem from your book. If you fail to fulfill it, you will get some negative reviews that can cause immense damage to your book sales. Clear cut, unambiguous, completely practical solutions are a must for a best-selling self-help book. Add value When you compare two products that are similar, but only one of them offers a freebie, there is a huge chance that you will pick the value added one that gives you more for the same cost. The same goes for your self-help book, especially if the topic you are covering has already been written about extensively. Not only should you try to bring in an entirely new perspective to attract the audience, you can also ensure that your buyers get more value by adding a freebie that they will find useful. For example, a book about the benefits of yoga can come with a free CD showing your readers how to do various yoga poses and exercises. They will get to know why yoga is great for them and they can also progress to doing it, thanks to your CD.

Regardless of what methods to use to improve your beliefs about yourself, bringing about a positive change takes time, patience and a lot of trial and error on your part.

March 18th, 2016

How To Promote Your SelfPublished Book

Published by: Alun Hill

You need more than just amazing writing skills and a burning passion to go the full mile without giving up.

By Alun Hill on January 9th, 2016

Self-discipline and self-monitoring are key to staying focused and meeting your authorship goals.

So, you have your very first self-published book all ready to unveil to the world?

These four tips will help you keep the momentum going less painfully.

You even have a list of friends, acquaintances and relatives lined up to buy your first copies?

Be patient

That’s great, but what comes next when you have already sold your book to the first group of buyers? To canvass the marketplace in the most effective way and to ensure that your book sells, you need to invest attention in promotions too. Here are a few points you can use. Everyone is not your audience It’s true, not everyone is going to want to read your book and that’s not bad. In fact, there is probably no book in existence that has universal appeal. However, assuming that your book will appeal to everyone can be a big marketing mistake. The first step in effectively promoting your book is to understand who your audience is. You have already worked on it when you started to write the book, i.e.: defining your audience. Now, you take this a step further and assess where the audience is likely to congregate so that you can focus your promotions in these areas. For example, if you have a book titled “Caring for your newborn”, you may want to promote it in forums where new parents tend to interact, or on communities managed by brands that sell products for newborns. Offer your book free in exchange for reviews Offering your book for free may seem to be rather counterproductive, but if you get some really good reviews in, the move can pay off in spades. Typically, you should limit the freebie offer to a few days right after launch and encourage the buyers to give reviews. Do not expect all of them to comply with your request, but some of them will surely oblige. If you know the top reviewers or subject matter experts in the niche that your book belongs to, offer them a free copy before launch and get their views on the book. Publish these along with your book listing to give it credibility in the marketplace. Use social media to the fullest Thanks to social media, sharing news with the world is easy and you can leverage the advantage to promote your selfpublished book to the world at large. Include blurbs from the book, pictures, reviews, excerpts to tantalize your social media followers to read the book. If there is any recent news that can be related to your book, refer to it and link it with your book and its contents. It is a great way to make the best of trending news in your promotional strategies.

It’s not for nothing that patience is regarded as a virtue. There are quite a few logistics involved in both print and epublication, and many first-time self-publishers tend to miss key steps when navigating the process. Look at it this way : in a publishing house, different individuals and departments handle different aspects of publication. When you’re on your own, you have to wear more than one hat, and go about the process patiently. Expect your patience to be tested even more when you’re balancing your personal and work (if you’re employed) commitments. Be objective If you’re a non-fiction writer, the ability to see your work through the lens of literary agents can come in handy. It can help you make objective decisions on content creation and marketing, by answering questions like ‘what kind of value does my book offer the target market?’ and ‘how unique and necessary is my book in its category?’. Don’t skimp on the research It is critical that, prior to publishing, you do your research and clearly understand all your options. Some of the notso-glamorous aspects of self-publishing include obtaining an ISBN and barcode, figuring out the payment mechanisms and tax obligations, creating your copyright statement, and developing your website. As you’re readying to publish, you need to implement your web marketing plan. Even after you’ve published your book and started work on your next project, you must keep marketing your previous project. Stay committed Some writers can draft an 80,000 page book within a month while other may take up to a year to write the same number of words. If you can write only 400-500 words a day, and not write at all on some days, it’s fine. What’s more important is that you’re committed to the endeavor, because ultimately, writing a novel or creating a picture book is both time and effort intensive. Serious writers regard their work as a labor of love. Anyone who doesn’t want to take the pain to tell a story probably isn’t a serious writer. This quote by the great American writer Flannery O’Connor can help put things in perspective : ‘Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay.’

Four Top Tips For Every Newbie Self-Publisher By Alun Hill on January 7th, 2016

The journey to self-publishing can be an arduous one. 13

March 18th, 2016

Published by: Alun Hill