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I think the biggest struggle I have to this very day, including this blog is creating a catchy title that grabs readers attention. Every once in a while I will pull it off but for the majority of the time, I fail. However, a great title is important in more ways than one. Not only does your title have to catch readers attention, in article writing it also has to contain the main keyword of topic as well as deliver a promise.  Read rest of this blog here:  This is not my Title

Read full blog here:  The Get Personal Writing Tip

First off.. How is your focus? Are you easily distracted in general or is this just something new? If it is just an occasional loss of focus, it can be a few different things causing it - lack of sleep, an event or something coming up that requires your time and focus that is pulling you in different directions, and even problems in your life can cause conflicts in writing. Sometimes lack of focus on your writing is not the issue with writing in itself, but other matters that you need to tend to first. Once those issues are resolved, you will see your focus returns.

Now, if you are just all over the place in general, you may have a touch of AADD (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder). Now, I am no medical professional, so go talk to a doctor first and go from there. A doctor can give you both natural and pharmaceutical treatments to help you regain some focus.

Now, for those of you in-between, here are a few tips that may help you lessen or even eliminate some of them distractions that interrupt your article or blog writing.

Your Writing Environment:

Some people can write easily with a TV or a radio in the background. I am one of them. When I have complete silence I find my mind wanders more. However, I do deal with AADD so weird as it may sound, it helps to avoid distractions. However, there have been times when it does start to sound louder and louder and I do have to turn it down. Generally that happens when I am struggling with a thought or a word I know I want to use but can easily pull it out of my mind bank. (A quick phone call to my mom or sister generally resolves that!). However for some, a TV or music in the background can totally throw them off so it is important to figure out your environment triggers that cause you to lose your focus.

Your environment is not just what surrounds you physically as in people or noise but also the internet itself. Facebook for example. If you have Facebook up while you are trying to write and each time you get a notification that you have a comment or whatnot, it is easy to get distracted and jump on to see who commented on what. Shut down any open windows on your browser that you do not need for writing or totally get off line to eliminate that temptation.

Lighting also plays a role in your environment. The brighter a room, the better for your eyes, and less likely you will begin to feel tired with the need to take a “quick” nap that turns into a few hour nap. Now mind you, a quick nap when feeling stressed with direction can actually help tremendously in getting you back on track, but it can also become habit forming and become extended in duration.

The Constant Ringing Phone:

There are a couple things you can do about that phone ringing off the hook...one, tell your friends and family to only call during certain hours. Make those hours when your writing is less productive.

During the time you are writing, turn your phone off or put it on silence. That way when the phone does ring it is not an instant distraction. It seems like for me anyways, as soon as I am on a great train of thought the phone rings and blows it all away even if I don’t answer. However, I am not so lucky to just turn it off and pretend it doesn’t exists. I do not think customers would be extremely happy with me ignoring their call merely because I was writing, even if it was their stuff I was writing.

Other things you can do to help minimize distractions are:

Wear head phones to eliminate excessive noise.

Keep a clean desk. A clean desk helps to keep a clear mind.

Keep an ample supply of Mt Dew on hand. Okay.. I just added that one to see if you were reading still. However, it is a must for me.

Have a basic outline to work from. It will help you keep your thoughts and focus on track

Do you do anything special that helps keep you on task while article writing? Please share them with us! 

A decision was made that we will no longer be partaking in ladders. They are addictive for one thing & it ends up being a numbers game. We will do strolls where we can actually make a connection & actually see what others have to offer. There are too many wonderful pages w/great products out there that are being totally overlooked because of ladders. This is just my feelings from a marketing stance.

Read full post here.... The Numbers Game

The customers are not going to just start popping out of the wood work like magic, swarming like cockroaches starving for what you have to offer, begging to buy/eat/use your product/service. You have to bring them customers to you. To convert fans into customers you first have to get the fans, and then once you have the fans, NOT DRIVE THEM AWAY!!!

If you have been on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blog sites and have yet to see any real conversion of fans/followers to buying customers, you are doing something wrong.

One of the biggest downfalls of fanpages is lack of good old fashion communication. Think back to the ma and pop stores that had the loyal customers that came in on a regular basis. The biggest reason behind the past success of the ma and pop stores was because of the emotional connection more so then product or convenience. Most ma and pop stores actually had to charge more on products versus their competition chain stores, generally because they had higher overhead. Yet their loyal customers who could have driven down the road to a cheaper store didn’t because they had an emotional connection with the store owners. Granted, the ma and pop stores are few and far in-between now as chains have ran them out of business, however, their basic marketing practices stand tried and true today. Customer interaction will always win hands down!

That is the connection most fanpages do not have with their fans/followers, and if they do have a connection, it is with a select few. So now you ask, how in the world am I suppose to make an emotional connection when I have done ladders and have over 1000 plus fans on my page. Great question, but first, let me ask you this. Are they really fans, or have they just liked your page, like hundreds of others, because they too partook in a ladder?

The first thing you need to do is listen, watch, interact and see how many of those listed on the left side of your page are really fans or are they just there for the mutual like. And by all means, do not feel bad about removing the spam. It is your fanpage and you need to interact with those that you feel will be most beneficial to you.

Remember, the key thing behind Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs are “Social”. And social means interacting. It is hard to interact if it is just a one way conversation. Most fanpages are used as a public broadcasting system, repeating the same commercial over and over again to where followers end up changing the channel, (hiding on Facebook), or flat out deleting the channel from their network.

Think of your fanpage a TV. You want to entertain/educate your fanbase. With TV, unless it is the Super Bowl, the commercials are not the reason one turns on the TV. It is for the movies, realty shows, sports, and comedy. Manage your page the same way. Limit commercials! In other words, DO NOT POST repeatedly how you are running a special, or picture after picture of what you have to sell. Look at the newsfeed and be honest. Do you pay attention to post after post of items for sale, or do you look for some realty in all of the mess? Can you even find a conversation on there you would like to join in on without having to scroll through massive amounts of commercial broadcasting post? Are you one of those fanpages adding to the mess of commercial broadcasting in the newsfeed?

If you read yourself in the above paragraph, it is time you start to do things differently to make some emotional connections, interact with potential future customers, and start converting fans into customers.

You DO NOT need to interact with everyone on your followers list, but you do need to make an effort to reach out to at least 3 to 4 different people a day by leaving a thoughtful relevant comment post or picture they may have. Not going to their page and telling them “hey, we are running a special, come check it out!”. Reach out and touch someone like Ma Bell would say. This will increase the over all opinion others have about you which will reflect on you as a business person.

If you have more then one administrator on your fanpage, make sure who ever is working it announce who they are when they are reaching out making a virtual connection. For example.. I have 10 plus admins. on our fanpage, although I am generally the only one who does any interacting. If one of my admins where to visit your page and comment on a post you may have, they would end their comment with their name.. e.g. “comment” ~ Julia. (Julia is one of our writer’s by the way.:)) This lets the other person know who they are talking to, put a name to a fanpage, and gives it a human touch. Plus as the owner of the fanpage, it allows you to see what others are doing on your behalf and who.

Facebook etiquette is another biggy with fanpages that is overlooked. Respond timely to messages and comments, and respond to them all! Acknowledge everyone who post comments or sends messages! No one likes to feel ignored or overlooked! Here are some more basics you should be paying attention to in the management of your fanpage.

Negativity Posts: With this, I am not talking about drama on another fanpage, I am talking about someone speaking about your product or being in not the best of light. This of course can lead to drama if not handled properly and leave a scar on your reputation if not dealt with on a timely fashion. When you see mention of your product/company/person on another’s page, first, compose yourself. Do not go off half cocked because once something is written and read, it is hard to take it back. So, take a deep breath and think out a well thought out response. If you are having a difficult time, ask someone to assist you in what and how to respond in a calm fashion. Often times, your simple acknowledgement and the manner in which you respond can change a complaint into someone who sings your praises.

EDUCATE: Not everyone totally understands what it is you offer or what your product is about. I know I for one am not afraid to say.. what the heck is your business all about. I do want to know! So if I ask you, I am sincere, I really want to know. It may be because I am just curious, or it may be I have a slight idea of what it is about and know others that I think might benefit from what you have to offer. And if that is the case, I want to be able to give an educated shout out to my followers about your business. But what would be beneficial for you is if you merely broke down your business so I didn’t have to guess or even ask. This is where education plays a role in your fanpage promotion. If I have to ask, you know others are curious as well. I can’t believe I am the minority. Use status updates, discussions, and notes to educate your followers. Think of questions they may have about your product/service and answer it before they ask. Teaching is probably one of the best sales techniques out there!

Informative versus Promotional versus Personal Status Updates: First off, think of your fanpage as an extension of yourself. Does your fanpage give your followers a glimpse into who you are? Your personality? What you are about as a person? I am not talking about marital status, kids, shoe size, etc. I am talking about are you a funny person? Can I joke with you? Are you all business no play? Are you sentimental? Are you touchy - meaning where someone needs to be careful on how they go about responding to you? Are you optimistic, pessimistic, critical, needy, etc.? Seriously, this does matter; the good the bad and the ugly of your personality. Recognize what your personality is and determine if you have the right personality to even market your product/service. Some unfortunately do not have the right personality to market on Facebook and should seek out a less social way of marketing their wares.

Your status updates should never be all of one type.. rather, they should be a combination of informative, promotional, and personal. They should all be conversation starters. Ask a question, inform, debate, etc.. think – what do inquiry minds want to know. Crafters - tell a story about your pieces.. what made you create a particular piece, the inspiration, the feeling behind it, the difficulties, etc. Make your pieces original through your words in order to make them stand out. If you create jewelry, crochet, paint, photography, sew, etc. - ask yourself - what sets you apart from the rest that are offering similar products. Express that when you do a promotional post. Don’t just post a picture and basically say.. here it is.. buy it. SELL IT with YOU! Your blood sweat and tears! YOUR WORDS!!!!

DO NOT post promotion after promotion! Do not post picture after picture of products you have for sale. Do not post 20 times a day!

Do give of yourself, educate, share, and most importantly, INTERACT!!!!!!  

Are you losing valuable business and time through your email marketing efforts ending up in peoples spam folders only to be deleted? If you have a real service or product you want noticed, stop throwing your money away on emails that go unnoticed or worse, get you flagged as a spammer.

Today’s time demand wise use of our marketing dollars. Wasting even $10.00 of that can hurt ones bottom line. So why waste it on emails that go to potential customers spam folders?

A wiser investment of your marketing dollars is to utilize article marketing. With informative articles about your product(s) or service(s) will get you far more bang for your buck.

You can go about this a couple ways:

1. Write your own articles rich in keywords that the common customer would use in a search engine to find your product or service. Articles that get the most hits are those that give the reader deeper knowledge on the topic and how to’s. After writing articles, submit them to article distribution/publishing sites. Several article submission sites allow you to submit your articles free and leave links back to your website in your author resource box. Some even allow for links within your articles. You could also use your articles in your blogs. Doing both increases your chances of being noticed on search engines. Variety and amount will get you the best results. How much will this cost you out of your marketing budget? Not a dime, just your time. So what do you do if your writing skills are not up to par or you just do not have the time to give to your own marketing? Well, in either case, you are not the first. Many people who run a business are already swamped with other aspects of managing a business, that finding time to market is next to impossible. That leads me to option two – outsourcing your article marketing needs.

2. Your second option is to outsource your article marketing needs. Of course, we would love it if you outsourced your needs to us, however, we are not oblivious of the many other article writing services out there. Nevertheless, we can offer you high quality original articles targeted to your product(s)/service niche that will be noticed. We can promise you top notch customer service. Your questions will be answered in a very timely fashion. In addition, we are happy to help our customers brainstorm ideas that will help benefit their business regardless if we get anything out of it or not. We always aim to have 100% customer satisfaction! We are staffed with 100% U.S. writers that have extensive backgrounds in SEO writing and marketing. There are not too many topics we can’t write about but if we come across one that may cause us difficulties, we will say so upfront rather then pretend we can offer you exceptional quality articles and refer you to someone who may.

Articles will give you the opportunity to tell the whole story about your product(s) or service(s). It will give you the opportunity to highlight what makes it unique. It is a great opportunity to address the benefits your product/service has to offer. It gives you a chance to explain how your product works or how your services can enhance one’s life or business. There are so many stories to be told about your products/services that are being lost in spam folders or not fully told.

Emails only work if they are being read. Even if your email doesn’t end up in a reader’s spam folder, if it is not being opened by someone interested in your product or timed right for the individuals needs, it will be deleted nonetheless, just as if it were spam. So get your word/product/service out there for those who are interested through article marketing. Give people a chance to find you and become your next customer.

A Facebook Fanpage is a great way to network and ultimately attract potential clients but it can also be a place where you drive those same potentials away.  When creating a fanpage the creators first thought is “How can I get as many fans as possible?”  Everyone wants to have a lot of people who“Like” what they are offering however there is no real overnight growth like that holds truly potential clients or customers.  There are FanPages that you see grow overnight such as Get 10,000 Fans.  They are great and even great resources for making some connections, but having that mass growth over night like that on a business or niche type fanpage is not a reality. 

Building a solid fan base takes time but there are some aspects of FanPages such as Get 10,000 Fans that are beneficial if used wisely.  Fanpages that allow you to promote your fanpage are great in starting a base fanbase so your page does look more appealing to others who come across it.  Utilize those pages by “liking" their page and dropping a comment with a link back to your fanpage.  You will receive some followers by doing so; however, do not become a nuisance on these pages.  What I mean by that is don’t get crazy posting a link to your fanpage daily on their pages.  This makes you look bad and are likely to be blocked.  Here are a few FanPages that I have come across where we were well received and we did pick up some likes: 

Get 10,000 Fans

Mommy Link – Promote your Page

Facebook Shoutouts

Our Corner

Shoutouts for You

These are just a few I have came across without really doing any sort of search which tells me if I put even a little effort into it I could find tons more.  But again, be courteous, don’t spam their pages, and also make sure to share their generosity by giving them a shout out on your own page.