Blogging
What’s the shelf life of a blog?
24th June 2020 | Posted in Blogging, Content creation
Current times have thrown up a whole new set of search terms for blogs. This time last year, who had heard of ‘coronavirus’, ‘Covid-19’, ‘lockdown’, or even ‘Joe Wickes’? The temptation in writing blogs for today is to throw today’s popular pandemic terms into the content with abandon. That’s certainly not wrong, especially if you […]
Getting the grumps out of the way – and then starting again
| Posted in Blogging
I spent ages writing a blog yesterday that I’m not going to publish. Why? Because it broke umpteen of my rules of good marketing communications: It was grouchy It was very long It meandered It was all about me Now, I believe I have very good grounds for getting frustrated with a certain sector of […]
Turn your blogs in to ebooks for marketing and profit
5th March 2020 | Posted in Blogging, Small business
Have you been blogging away sharing your expertise with the world? Do you have numerous pieces of advice and information published in your name on your site or social media that could be pulled together into something more substantial and authoritative? Either as a downloadable profit-making project or as a marketing tool? I’ve just been […]
Writing articles from conferences, seminars and panel discussions
15th May 2019 | Posted in Articles, Blogging, Content creation
Conferences are a rich source of content. You actually have in front of you experts from across a company and beyond, gathered in one place, to share their knowledge. It’s a wonderful opportunity to gather in-depth expertise into an article, and drop in a few industry-leading names at the same time. As they say, what’s […]
Checking facts for credible writing
16th April 2019 | Posted in Blogging, Content creation, Journalism, Marketing communications
Once upon a time I was berated in a journalism training class. I’m not often told off for anything, being almost a perfect rule abider and non-risk taker. There was that time in a Body Balance class when I stretched further than was wise, and I vaguely remember my mother not being that impressed […]
Timeless content
20th March 2019 | Posted in Blogging, Content creation, Web content
I wrote this Loneliness Guide for the When They Get Older blog five years ago, and it’s still one of the most popular pieces on the site. It’s collected some impressive backlinks along the way, which helps enormously with the profile of the site. Why has it lasted so well? Partly because the subject matter […]
When you ask me to edit or proofread, what exactly do you mean?
14th January 2019 | Posted in Blogging, book, Editing, Marketing communications
You know what you want. But do I? “Editing” and its sibling “proofreading” are words that mean everything and nothing. So it pays to make sure we agree. Let’s take the examples of Jack and Susu (who are not really called Jack and Susu but they are real customers). Jack is way out of […]
Sports fans and business blogging – spot the difference
23rd April 2018 | Posted in Blogging, Content creation, social media
Last night I listened in to a webinar about sports marketing and social media*. This is odd for two reasons. First, it was all about football in Europe, and I only ever pretend to be interested in that to keep other people happy. Second, it was about engaging with fans on social media. And I […]
Honesty in blogging can be healthy for your brand
18th April 2018 | Posted in Blogging, Branding
Do you struggle to be endlessly positive in your blogging because you’re trying to show you know best? I do. Perhaps we’re trying too hard. Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with being less than perfect. And not knowing all the answers all the time. It can be hard to constantly take the role of lofty adviser […]
How long does it take to write a blog?
18th July 2016 | Posted in Blogging
Or, more importantly, how long does it take to write a good business blog? I believe a good business blog goes beyond analytics. Finding the topics and the keywords that attract potential customers is great. But that content then has to be valuable in some way to build your business credibility. So it needs to […]
