Too many ideas: how to know if your business idea will work
Self-employed people that I know and work with have no shortage of ideas. Our creativity is what makes us good at business and potentially awesome at marketing. The problem with having too many ideas for your business is that it keeps you spinning on the spot, with...
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The importance of rants in business blogging
Yet again, you’re standing on your soapbox at a party, ranting on your favourite topic. What do you rant on? This is a question that I regularly ask my blogging for business course participants and clients. Not because I want to encourage complaining. Nor do I suggest...
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Making email human again
Are you stuck, going through the motions of sending out the same-old-same-old email newsletter every month? Or worse, have you not emailed your list for some time because you just can’t think of anything interesting to say, or why anyone would be interested to hear...
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Self-care for the self-employed: don’t buy the bath salts
Some years ago, my colleague Rebekah Lambert and I put on a short course called ‘Self-care for the Self-Employed’ because of an aching, overwhelming need that we saw. We had a hugely enthusiastic response and, perhaps predictably, many last minute drop-outs by people...
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Live video explodes reach and visibility online
One of the most exciting developments in digital marketing in recent times is also one of the most accessible for small business owners – I’m talking about live video. Last year, we covered live video as a marketing tool for the first time in my Social Media Savvy...
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How to improve your website’s Google ranking
One of the reasons why businesses have blogs is to be found on Google. Writing strategic, informative and memorable business blogs can do wonders for improving your website’s Google ranking. Indeed, it’s one of the biggest reasons why participants come to my...
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Bare minimum marketing
I had my ear chewed off by a man at a party recently. For 2.5 hours to be exact – that’s how long it took for him to acknowledge that there might be some value in digital marketing. Most of those 2.5 hours were spent listening to him lament the “good old days” of...
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Why I don’t teach how to monetise your blog
It’s all the rage to ‘monetise your blog’. The Problogger conference last year hosted many workshops, panels and discussions about how to work with brands and how to monetise your blog. But in the last three and a half years that I’ve been running Blogging for...
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How your job hurts your new business
It’s likely you have the skills you need right now to start your own business. You can get (well) paid to do what you love, so long as it lines up with what your market wants. Your office could be poolside in summer, and snow-side in winter. You can start work at 12pm...
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Marketing superpower: acknowledging intimidation
I’d joined the gym (again) and this time I was going to make it work. Rather naively, my first visit was during a busy weekday lunchtime. To my left, a long line of people jogging, running and walking on machines. To my right, a confusing array of weights machines,...
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Urgency and scarcity: the crux of decisions
You’ve been wooing your people with marketing – educating and informing them, introducing a little of your approach and experience, addressing any misconceptions or misunderstandings, sharing a little of your personality and style. Your blogs, emails, and videos have...
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The dirty 30 commandments to making boldness your business strategy
Turn up the volume. You already have an opinion, and a voice. You don’t need to yell and you should keep answering “what’s in it for me?” to an imaginary audience of obnoxious 13 year-olds. But please! Turn up the volume so that people can hear you. . Stop...
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