Here are some resources that can help you to create the action steps that will work for you to help you to achieve your business objectives:

Six Daily Marketing Practices

By Robert Middleton

I’m subscribed to the feed for actionplan.com, which is Robert Middleton’s blog where he writes about, “marketing ideas for attracting more clients.”  Today’s post is, “Six Daily Marketing Practices,” and it caught my attention because it’s concise, to the point, and it totally lays out a system that you can use and get results from. This is the kind of content that establishes you as an expert because it shows that you are willing to freely share your expertise.

My favorite of Middleton’s six steps is: “#4. Track your progress every single day.” This is an area where I will admit I fall down. I often, ‘fly by the seat of my pants,’ because I have way too many things going on. I keep a white board in my work area, so I plan to write out the six steps and work them for 30 days (hmmm. I feel a 30 day challenge coming on. . .) and see what happens. Source: http://bit.ly/zxxDlc

 5 Essential Marketing Action Steps

By Marty Marsh

When I read this article I focused in on step #2, “Know your ideal/perfect client.” Marsh writes, “Because when you decide who your ideal client is — who will bring you the most joy to work with and who will happily pay you what you are worth — exactly those kinds of clients begin to show up. It’s the best example of the Law of Attraction at work that I know of.” Also be sure to pay attention to step five, which asks, “What is your client education process?” This is crucial because how you educate your prospects will have a direct impact on your conversion rate. Source: http://bit.ly/zQecd5

Create an Action Plan Now

By Ray Silverstein

This article on entrepreneur.com lays the ground work for helping you to develop your own action plan. Once you have come up with a plan, Silverstein advises readers, “Don’t tuck it in a drawer–keep it close by for constant reference. Make regular appointments with yourself to review your plan and ensure you stay on track. It is a work-in-progress, and you can expect to make changes as you proceed. That’s okay, just don’t stop working on it.” Source: http://bit.ly/xU4KOn

The goal with all of this is to create new daily habits that support you in attaining the goals you have set. It also helps to have an accountability partner such as a coach or trusted business adviser that you can report to, get support, advice and tough love from.

What are the action steps that you do at least weekly that you attribute to your successful habits? Please share your story in the comments.

Related articles

• How to Change Your Bad Marketing Habits for Good (smartsimplemarketing.com)
• How to Market Your Business Consistently to Grow Your Income (smartsimplemarketing.com)
• How to Be Present for Your Business (ducttapemarketing.com)

Create a company Facebook Page
The first step is to follow Facebook’s terms of service and use a free fan page or company page to do business on Facebook, and use your personal profile for communicating with your friends and family. Yes, the personal profile is far better suited to engaging with your audience, but there’s no use investing a lot of time and effort building up a business following on your personal profile if it will get you shut down. I personally know of at least one author and speaker who had a huge Facebook following on her personal profile and Facebook shut her down completely.

Once you’ve created your company page, the best way to get an initial influx of ‘Likes,’ is to invite your friends to ‘Like’ your company page. But first you’ll want to get a nice supply of posts in there so that they have something interesting to read and comment on.

Segment your friends into lists
If your Facebook profile is anything like mine, it’s a mixture of family, friends, former co-workers, current business contacts and other random people. In order to create some kind of boundary–if that is what you want to do–you can first segment your people into lists. Going forward you can pop new friends into the appropriate list or create a new list. (Google+ style

On your profile page click on ‘Account’ in the upper right-hand corner of the page and then click on ‘Edit Friends,’ from the dropdown menu that will appear. You will see a friend’s photo on the left and a ‘Friends,’ button on the right. Click on the ‘Friends’ button and another dropdown menu will appear with several lists along with the option to create a new list.

Let’s create some new lists. You may have current customers and clients, colleagues and prospective customers as Facebook friends. You can decide how you are going to divide people up. Give each list a name and then as you go down your list of friends, click on which list you are going to add them to. Be mindful that when you create these lists that Facebook will sometimes send them a notification that they have been added to a particular list. Just be careful what you name your lists and this information is not for your eyes only.

Choosing who sees which status updates
Now that you have placed your friends in lists you can decide who sees specific status updates. When you send a notification about a company event, your aunt Sadie in Buffalo doesn’t need to see that.

When you click on the box on your profile that asks, “What’s on your mind?” you’ll see a down arrow to the left of the ‘Post’ button. When you click on that down arrow a dropdown menu appears allowing you to select which list you want this update to go to.

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of segmenting your Facebook friends into separate lists, or if you are of the mind that you are your brand and that personal and business can mingle happily, then you might want to send a note to those contacts who are interested in your business activities inviting them to join your company page and include a link to it.

Of course, who knows how long these instructions will be valid because Facebook is constantly changing its layout and features, which should serve as a reminder that you don’t own or control your Facebook profile, so always create ways to bring your friends to your blog or website and encourage them to sign up for your email newsletter so that you can stay connected.

You are on the web because you want more visibility and more sales for your business, right? Well, what better way to get more visibility than notifying the media and the search engines about a new development or event related to your business? That’s what you accomplish when you write and distribute a press release.

Writing and submitting press releases has more far reaching benefits than just the exposure that you could get for your business if a reporter picks it up and does a news story on you. Press releases can really help to boost your website’s search engine rankings from all of the relevant, high page-rank websites that your release will be published on.

Each time you submit a press or media release you’ll get a ton of fresh back links pointing at your site, which makes it look more important to the search engines. In this article we’ll take a look at two different approaches to writing and submitting press releases for your business, the benefits of each approach, and you’ll get some cool resources that will help you improve the quality of your press releases.
Resources for writing your press release:
The first thing you must keep in mind when you are writing your press release is that the language can not be ‘salesy’ or promotional. A press release is not an ad for your business. Your goal is to get a reporter to find what you are writing about interesting enough to their readers or viewers that they want to do a story on your business.

There is a standard format for a press release that you must follow. You can download a press release template and use that as a framework for adding your content. Keep your target audience in mind when you are writing and keep the language spare and absolutely hype-free.

Here’s a fabulous website that has lots of resources for you if you are going to try to write your own press release:
http://www.press-release-writing.com/press-release-writing-tips-sample-press-release/

These next two resources I got from Nancy Juetten, who is an absolute publicity passionista:

This, ‘Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer,’ is a free tool that will analyze your headline and given a score according to its emotional marketing value.

http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/index.htm

HubSpot’s Press Release Grader evaluates your press release and provides a marketing effectiveness score.

http://www.pressreleasegrader.com/

Submitting a press release for media exposure for a major event or new development
If you are hosting a major event and you are looking to get media coverage, submitting a press release is the best way to accomplish tat goal. However, while the PR submission service can guarantee that your press release gets delivered, they cannot guarantee that reporters will do a story about your event.

When you are trying to get exposure for your event, submitting your press release to a well-known, reputable pr service gives your release a better chance of being picked up by reporters. The better known services have established a reputation, and reporters are more likely to run with something from prweb.com, or prnewswire.com than from one of the thousands of free press release submission websites online.

Here’s a list of specialty press release distribution resources:
http://www.yudkin.com/resources.htm

Submitting a press release for SEO purposes
If your goal is to get lots of relevant backlinks for your website, gain more exposure online and boost your website’s SEO,  then you should be submitting press releases to the free press release distribution sites on a regular basis.

These are just a few of the hundreds of free press release distribution websites:

• prlog.com
• freepressindex.com
• free-press-release.com

Would you like to see how your website is currently measuring up to your competition? Type your site’s primary keyword into a search engine. Are you are the top of the search engine results page, or is your competitor there above you?

Writing and distributing press releases is a powerful way to help build a ton of high page rank back links to your site, while generating massive exposure and traffic.

Can you see now what an effective tool press releases can be? Whether you are looking for media attention for an event or if you just want a SEO boost for your website, submitting press releases can accomplish either task for you.

If after reading all about how press releases can help your business, you understand what a great benefit they could be, but you’re thinking about how many other things you have to do and how much you dislike writing, I’ve got a solution for that too–Hire me to write it for you. Shoot me an email at ebb567 {AT} gmail {DOT} com and I will send you all the details.

Do you have a success story related to media coverage that you got from submitting a press release? Please leave a comment and share your story.

One thing that you will learn as you are growing your online business is that it is important to have mentors. I consider the best mentors to be those people who you admire who have achieved the goals that you are seeking to achieve. You watch what they do and model their success. One of the people that I have watched and admired is Connie Ragen Green. I have been on her email list for awhile and she is one who likes to teach others how to do what she does so that they can get good results.

Today, Connie sent out an email inviting her subscribers to visit her blog and take her 21 Day Productivity Challenge. You know that I’m all about challenging yourself to achieve more than you thought possible. I read her post and I liked it so much and thought it so useful that I’m sharing a link with you.  I’ve already started a 30 day challenge for August, so I won’t be taking this on right now, but I will keep this in mind for later on in the year when I need to kick-start things around here.

Go take a look and give her challenge a go:

http://www.hugeprofitstinylist.com/21-day-productivity-challenge/

Even if you don’t do all 21 days, you will learn some valuable information. Already I’m going to borrow her idea and come up with a challenge of my own to help those who want to get started with online freelance writing.

Who are your mentors? What kinds of challenges are you taking on to stretch yourself? Share the details in the comments.

A colleague invited me to attend a tele-seminar the other night that was hosted by T. Harv Eker, of Peak Potentials, and author of the NY Times Bestseller, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. I’ve got the book, and I’ve been a fan of his work, so I listened in to see what he had to say. The program was about four of the most common money mistakes that people make.

As a business woman and a single mom who is responsible for myself and my three girls, I’m all ears when it comes to ways that I can avoid making mistakes around money. So, I listened in and I learned so much that I want to share a few nuggets with you.

First, let me just say that I love Eker’s passion. When you are teaching about a topic as fraught with issues and weird energy as the topic of money is, it helps that he’s got a vibrant, energetic, and enthusiastic approach that I find engaging.  I like his presentation style.

Here are three of the nuggets that I took away from this call that I wanted to share.  If these are useful to you, I recommend that you listen to the call as well. It’s all good stuff that will transform your financial life if you put it into action.

1.       Earn more money

While you might be tempted to say, “Duh,  who doesn’t want to earn more money?” Are you creating ways to earn more money in your life? We earn money in business by solving problems for other people, right? So, if you want to earn more money, solve more problems or solve bigger problems for people and they will pay you more money.  He also talked about not limiting your income by trading dollars for hours.

2.       Increase the value I provide

The next thing I took away was the resolve to add more value to the services that I provide for my clients. Harv said that in order to be successful you’ve got to give value first and let prospective clients experience the value that you offer.  I am going to look for ways in which I can save my clients money and time making each transaction with me a win-win where they feel that they got far more value than they paid me for.

3.       Major in marketing

Just last week I wrote a blog post about marketing phobia, for which I’ve gotten some really good feedback.  Can I just say that not getting past your marketing phobia spells a death sentence for your business. Eker says that we need to place ten times more emphasis on marketing and sales because that’s where the money comes into the business. You must become a marketing expert and get over any squeamishness you might be nurturing about putting yourself out there.  The world is waiting to hear about what you have to offer. Hiding your light under a bushel only succeeds in making you even more broke.

These were just a few of the things that I learned. I look forward to attending his seminar where I’ll learn lots more about how to grow wealth in this shifting economy.  If any of this sounds interesting, you should check out T. Harv Eker’s site, http://www.millionairemindintensive.com.  I don’t benefit in any way by you checking this out.  I just find Eker to be a fabulous resource, and what he shares can liberate and inspire many people who could use some help these days.

Photo credit: Jay Lopez

When visitors land on your website you’ve got mere seconds to grab their attention and get them to stick around to see what you’ve got to offer. Most people will not buy what you have to offer on their first visit to your site, but if they like what they see, you want to seize the opportunity to open up a dialogue with them so that they can get more comfortable with you and learn what you have to offer before they click that “Buy it Now” button.

So, your goal should be to get your visitors to sign up for your email list so that you can continue the conversation with them. In order to entice and encourage your visitors to give up their contact information, you’ve got to answer the “What’s in it for me?” question for them. What do you have of value to offer them that will give them that will whet their appetite for the products and services that you can provide?

This is basic content marketing at work. Content marketing seeks to woo prospects encouraging them to become customers who continue to come back for more because you have both demonstrated the value of what you have to offer them, and you have made the effort to develop a relationship with them.

The key to successful content marketing is to consistently deliver valuable and relevant content that meets your prospective customers needs. It is not thinly-veiled marketing materials–otherwise called spam. Rather through the content that you offer you are establishing your expertise and authority in your subject matter and industry. Through your relationship building efforts you are creating an environment of trust that could lead to higher customer loyalty.

It is easier than you think to create your own free product to give away to your website visitors, and in today’s post we are going to take a look at some creative ways you can quickly and easliy come up with a product to give away to generate leads and build a responsive email list.

Here are some ideas for giveaway products:

• eBooks

• A video series

• An audio series

• An email e-course

For each of these products you will begin with an outline. You can create a mindmap to brainstorm for ideas and then arrange them in outline order.

If you are going to create an ebook, chunk it down to a series of short articles strung together with an introduction, a table of contents, logical transitions and a conclusion that summarizes the materials and presents the next steps that you want your reader to take. A give away ebook does not need to be more than five to eight pages long. You will deliver on the promise made in the title of the book, but remind them that if they want the complete picture they should visit your website for more in-depth information.

If you don’t like to write, or if you think you’re not a good writer, you can record what you want to say in your ebook and then have it transcribed. Sign up for a free conference call service that records calls. Dial in and create your recording, and then find a transcriptionist through any of the online freelancing websites such as Odesk.com, or Elance.com. There is an online transcription service called, speechpad.com where you can call a phone number, speak your message into the phone and then the audio is transcribed and sent to you in an email.

For a video series you can use the outline that you created to write scripts or storyboards if you are making slide-show videos. Having a plan in advance makes gathering the information and shooting the videos take less time and effort.

With audios, your outline will help you to stay on topic when you are recording your messages. If you want to get fancy, add a bit of bumper music at the intro (fading in) and out-tro  (fading out). Be sure to include a short blurb at the end of your audio inviting the listener to visit your website.

An e-course can be easily put together from a series of ‘how-to’ articles. Load the messages into your email auto-responder service and then stagger delivery of the messages every few days. At the end of each message, point your readers back to your website.

Once you’ve got your product created, you can either hire a graphic designer to create an e-cover for your product, or you can make one yourself quite easily and inexpensively here: http://bit.ly/ecovermaker.

The final step is to upload your product to your website and create a link to the download page. Grab the opt-in code from your auto-responder program and if you have a WordPress blog you can add a new text widget to your blog’s side bar, and paste the opt-in code along with your e-cover image into the widget and then click ‘save’ and then ‘close.’

You should add a bit of descriptive copy above the opt-in box that tells the visitor what they will get when they subscribe to your email list. Better yet, create a short intro video that describes what they will be receiving.

Remember, this is not a marketing piece. You are offering them something of value in exchange for their subscribing to your email list. At the end you can include a call to action that directs them to your website to find more information and resources about your products and services.

If you’d really like to have a custom made lead generation product that you can upload to your website or blog to showcase your content and build your contact list, but you just don’t have the time to create one yourself, contact me and I will create one for you.

Have you created an awesome free product to give away to visitors to generate leads? Please leave a comment with a link to your site so that we can take a look.

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There were ten women in this first circle and we got to know each other over the series of telephone coaching sessions and the online forum. I really enjoyed the focused attention that was made possible because the group was so small. I learned so much and I was inspired both by LaShanda and by the other amazing women in our group.

Here are a few of the little ‘nuggets’ that I learned that I  will share in order to inspire you to invest in some coaching:

The importance of sharing our stories
When we visit someone’s website and everything seems perfect and it looks like they’ve got it going on it can never reveal the depth of the struggles that they went through to achieve what they have today. Sharing the story of how you started your business, what struggles you were able to overcome, the lessons learned and the victories won makes your readers catch a glimpse of your humanity. They will find some aspect of your story that they can relate to and they might say to themselves, “If she did it then maybe I can, too.”

‘Marketing moments’ & business blogging
I learned that I have been giving far too much away on my blog and then not tying the content back into sharing about what I do. She taught us about a certain approach to business blogging that balances content marketing with lead generation, and I’ll tell you the very first time I put her advice into practice I got a new client.

Social media conversion
As someone who uses social media daily to market my business, and as a social media manager for my private clients, what I learned from LaShanda about how to bring more of my social media audience to my blog and convert them to clients paid off because right away becuase I signed a new client that first found me on Facebook.

So, if you’re feeling a bit stuck you might consider a group coaching program like the SistaSense Circle where you can learn and grow and stretch yourself as you gain the skills and support to grow your business or coaching practice in a safe, encouraging environment.

If you are just starting out in online business and you could use some guidance, I recommend LaShanda’s, The Beginner’s Guide to Building Your Money Making Business Online, which is a bundle of ebooks, a 7-day course and 15 ‘how-to’ videos.

While the SistaSense Circle has officially ended, I plan to keep in touch with the members of the class so that we can
continue to inspire one another and learn from each other.

Do you work with a stellar coach who has helped you to break through some barriers and achieve new levels of success? Brag about them here in the comments.

Blogging is a personal publishing format that allows you to be able to have your own platform for sharing your ideas with the world. Reading feedback from visitors is quite rewarding and makes it worth all of the work and effort that goes into producing a quality blog.

But sometimes there are those days that your Mamma warned you about. There are days when life gets to be overwhelming, you’re exhausted and beaten down and the baby needs a new pair of shoes.  Sometimes you wonder what the heck you were thinking when you started that blog. What made you think you’d have time to post every day or least every week?

Well, gentle reader, I’ve got some fabulous news for you. I find myself in the same boat as you. I’m a blogger, a mom, and I’m running a business from home. My days are full to the brim, so if I am not strategic with my time, my blogs can slip off the radar and languish for days while I’m scrambling around after my girls, or knee-deep in a client project.

Since we all face the challenge of how to fit our blogging tasks into an already gloriously full day, I’ve come up with some tricks and strategies that you can use to develop productive habits, which will allow you to make the most of those little snippets of time in your day to get your blogging done.

I’ve heard it said that we teach what we most need to learn, and that is indeed the case with me because one of my biggest challenges has been keeping fresh posts on my blog. So, here are some tips and for writing and blog posting that I try to follow:

1. Keep a notebook handy

Here’s a perfect example of this tip. As I write this, I am sitting in the laundry room doing laundry. Because right now I live in an apartment that does not have a washer and dryer, I have to schlep my clothes to the local laundry. But, while I sit here waiting for the wash cycle to finish, I’m getting this blog post written because I brought my little mini-Netbook with me.

Get a small notebook, use the notes feature on your phone, or like me, keep your mini-laptop handy and jot down ideas as they come to you.

2. Stay in ‘Idea seeking’ mode

Keep your eyes and ears open for what is going on around you. How can you incorporate the events of your life into your blog posts? Just this week I got my first complaint on my email subscriber list. It threw me for a minute, but I got back on track quickly and turned it into a blog post.

Are you facing a challenge in your life? Find a way to share what you are learning without sharing too many of the personal, gory details. When there are big stories in the news either in your local area or nationally find a way to weave larger story into your blog posts if it’s appropriate.

Use your notebook and capture those ideas. You may not use all of them right away, but at some point you’ll be stumped for something to write about, and you can consult your notebook for some new ideas to write about.

3. Schedule specific blogging tasks

As a blogger you’ve got to do the following tasks over the course of a week:

• Write blog posts

• Share blog posts

• Market your blog

-social media marketing

-blog directories/communities

• Research

• Blog maintenance

- install, update plugins

-stats reports

-comment moderation

-database backups

• Network/build community with other bloggers

I’m certain that there are more tasks, but this is all that came to my mind. All of these things need to be done in order for your blog to run smoothly, so plug each of the tasks into your calendar and designate how many minutes you will set aside to complete it.

4. Write titles and outline posts in batches

In your research time, come up with some working titles of blog posts that you plan to write over the course of the coming week. Now, when you sit down to write, you will not be facing the dreaded blank page or screen. If you don’t have a hot topic to write about at the moment, look at your batch of working titles and start from there.

5. Write posts in batches

Take your list of titles and post outlines and write up a few posts in advance. Set them aside and come back and edit, proofread and format them in batches and, if you are running WordPress, you can publish them all at once scheduling the exact days and times you want each one to go live.

6. Utilize guest bloggers

Do you ever need a break from blogging, say for a vacation? Wouldn’t it be cool if someone else would write a blog post for you every now and then? Well, in exchange for a link back to their blog, guest bloggers will write a unique blog post for your blog. Is there a particular fan of your blog who always writes thoughtful, cogent comments, and who has a blog on a related topic to yours? You might send them a quick email and see if they might be interested in a guest blogging gig.

There are also several forums where bloggers seeking guest bloggers, and bloggers seeking blogs to guest post with hang out and help each other out. Here are two that I use:

http://BloggerLinkUp.com/

http://myblogguest.com/

7. Find ways to make it fun

Do you remember why you started blogging in the first place? Try to stay in touch with that initial excitement and use that energy to make your blogging tasks something you get to do rather than so much drudgery. Challenge yourself to a solid week of daily posting. Join a 30 day blogging challenge or start your own. Set specific goals for how often you will publish posts, and then create little rewards for yourself when you meet those goals. You know what motivates you, so use that to your advantage.

I’m in the 31DBBB challenge right now, and one of our tasks for the challenge is to find a blogging buddy. Develop a collaborative relationship with another blogger and challenge, encourage and support each other to make your blogs the best that they can be.

I recommend being patient with yourself as you develop these new habits. See which ones work for you and go with those for awhile and see if your blogging productivity improves. Number seven is the most important here because if you view your blogging responsibilities as chores or another “must do” task it will feel like drudgery.

When you come to view blogging as something fun and exciting that you get to do, you will be more likely to put all of your positive energy and enthusiasm into the task. Your passion for your topic will be apparent to your visitors and attract more visitors to your blog.

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How do you handle subscriber complaints from your email list community? Do you take it in stride as a part of doing business, or does it freak you out a little bit and send you scrambling? I must admit to the latter, but I am learning to grow a thicker skin, get over myself and realize that you can’t please all of the people all of the time, and that making mistakes sometimes is part of being human. In this post, I’d like to explore the idea of handling complaints, and what’s the most fruitful way to resolve an issue and move on with your day so that you don’t end up in a bit of a tizzy as I found myself the other day.

In addition to my RSS feed, my visitors are invited to subscribe to my email update list where I send an email about once a week with updates about what I’m up to in my business, I share things I’m learning, little victories and course corrections as I make them. BTW, this is a double opt-in list, meaning that subscribers first fill in a form with their own email address and then they click on a confirmation message in their inbox to complete the transaction.

So, I was poking around in my Aweber email management account setting up a broadcast message when I saw a bit of orange highlighting around one of the numbers in the stats for one of my email lists. It turns out that was in the ‘complaints’ column. “OMG!” I thought. Someone had complained about one of my emails. My heart started to beat very quickly as I opened the broadcast message in question, and it was typical of the kinds of messages I normally send, and until that particular incident, there have been 0.0% complaints. I was baffled, so I dove into the Aweber knowledge base to research what this was all about and find out what I could do about it.

But I learned that if a subscriber reports your email messages as spam to their ISP, Aweber will automatically delete that subscriber from your list. So, I took a step back and took a breath and realized that you really can’t please everyone all of the time. I will never know what it was in that email that might have pissed that subscriber off to the point that they would report it as spam because that’s a pretty serious complaint and too many of them can cause your ISP to shut you down.

When I looked at the situation I understood that there was really nothing that I could do about it, so there was no point in getting all anxious about it. If a person had complained to me directly, I could have handled it and settled it with them personally and done whatever was required to make it right, learn from it and then move on. But there is no way to address an anonymous complaint, so I decided not to let it get to me.

So, I guess what I’m trying to do here is to share this as a “teachable moment.” When you have a business where you will be dealing with the public, you will have complaints. There is no avoiding it. All you can do is deal with them and move on and not let it freak you out. Establish a policy for how you will handle complaints to make things right with the customer. Discuss the issue with your team, and if it was indeed a mistake that was made, take the opportunity to learn and grow from it.

As far as my email subscriber list goes, I am going to take this opportunity to send a little survey (which I will address in another post) so that I can get a clear idea of what they want to see more of from me, and what I should avoid. This way I can provide the best information possible for my subscribers.

But in the end some people just like to grumble and gripe and they are difficult to please. You can’t lose your confidence or cool when you come across these kinds of people. I say keep your head up and keep on plugging away and offering your very best.  Some people will appreciate it, and some will not, but as long as you always put forth your best effort you are a winner.

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Writing for the Web

Writing for the web is not the same as writing for print. If you are going to be writing content that will be consumed online there are a few concepts that you need to get clear on. By now most people understand the fact that we don’t read text online in the same way that we read text in hard copy such as a book or a newspaper that we hold in our hands.

People tend to skim online copy very quickly with their eyes.
The Internet is by nature fast moving and bright and shiny. Our brains and eyes move hyper-fast when we are online and if what we are looking at does not appeal to us, we can quickly get rid of it within a nano-second by clicking the next link.

As writers, we need to get in touch with the way our readers engage with our work online so that we can create a product that will be both useful and enjoyable by those who consume it. You want to craft content that makes your readers stop long enough for you to convey the message that you are trying to send. Your words must draw them in so that they can consume your content and in exchange for their attention you must fulfill the promise of supplying the information they were searching for.

Write for human readers but with SEO in mind.
Another unseen audience that is consuming our content online is the search engines. Since our human readers’ eyeballs are our most important audience we write for them, but it’s also important to keep the principles of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, in mind as we create web content.

Since many of us learned to write prior to the Internet age, there are a few specific strategies that we can employ in order to be effective at online writing.

• Do Keyword research and write content that focuses on one or two keywords while delivering concise information that the end user is searching for.
• Link to other related pieces of content within the site that add to topic.
• Link out to related authority sites that have high search engine rankings and provide additional information for your reader.
• Use images that illustrate your point and break up the text on the page.
• Write in shorter paragraphs allowing for sufficient white space on the page to give the reader’s eyes a place to rest.
• Use bullets and call-out boxes for the skimmers to grab information quickly.
• Use meaningful sub-headers to introduce ideas.

Tips for sharpening the saw:
This is a list of five tips that can help you to improve your online writing skills, but this does not pretend to be an exhaustive list. You’ll want to keep learning and constantly strive to improve your craft over time–’sharpening the saw’ as Steven Covey calls it.

1. Read excellent writing
While it might sound far too simple and obvious, but reading good writing is really the best way to improve your own writing skills. Read widely on diverse topics. Pick authors whose writing style you admire and read several of their books. Get suggestions for good reads from fellow book-lovers, or make friends with your local librarian.

Here are a few blogs that feature both excellent writing and compelling content for writers:

• http://www.copyblogger.com/
• http://www.problogger.net/
• http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/
• http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
• http://www.doshdosh.com/

2. Join a writing group
This can be tricky because a really good, established writing group can be quite challenging to find. You may end up starting one of your own, but find a group of fellow writers of varying levels of skill and accomplishment where you can share your work and get honest feedback on how you can improve it.

There are tons of writing groups online, but I prefer live groups because it gives you the chance to interact with other writers and create real relationships with real people who share your interests. Check out meetup.com to find a local writer’s critique group, or search online writing forums to find local writing groups.

3. Take a class
Visit your local University or Community College’s website to see if they offer an online writing class. It may, oddly enough, only be offered online, but you can find some live online writing classes as well. Other resources for online writing classes include:

• The Education Portal has an article with links to 10 Universities that offer free online writing classes

  http://education-portal.com/articles/10_Universities_Offering_Free_Writing_Courses_Online.html

• The Gotham Writing Workshop

  http://www.writingclasses.com/

• Wrter’s Digest University writing classes

  http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/

4. Hire a writing coach
Working with a writing coach is an excellent investment. If you want to write a book, but you would like to polish up your writing style, a coach can help you to get motivated, get unstuck, create a writing routine that works for your lifestyle, and most of all hold you accountable to the goals that you have set for yourself.

• http://www.writingforward.com/category/writing-help/writing-coach
• http://writingcompanion.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/writing-mentor-coach/
• http://www.genreality.net/ten-reasons-to-hire-a-writing-coach

5. Practice, practice and more practice.
“A writer writes,” as they say. Write something everyday. Set a daily word count goal that you feel that you can stick to, but that will also force you to stretch yourself a bit. Commit to meeting this goal, but don’t beat yourself up when you don’t. Just pick up where you left off. Keeping a daily longhand journal can be therapeutic and help you clear out what’s on your mind so that you can focus on creating good writing.

Keep a blog where you write about whatever inspires you. Write a new post every day and before long you will begin to notice that you are developing a unique style that your readers will come to enjoy.

Additional Writing Resources:

• http://www.webanddesigners.com/20-ways-to-improve-websites-readability
• http://www.problogger.net/31-days-to-building-a-better-blog/
• http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/fifty-50-tools-which-can-help-you-in-writing.html