One of the keys to being the first choice of your clients is by establishing yourself as an expert in your field.
Felicia Slattery, Keith Goodrun and Jeff Herring put out a challenge to the world of internet marketing folks. They’re calling it “100Articles100Days” and created a support system for all of us participants amping up our marketing. Well this morning I figured out a couple of keys to keep myself on track and meet my HAHD goals:
1 – Be a dedicated writer
Dedication can come in many forms for us small business folks. Over time I’ve learned I’m verbally freshest first thing in the morning and I am learning to protect and use that! If I log in to ‘clear out’ emails… it’s hours before I get back to it and my time is *poof* gone
2 – Be systematic
In the past I’ve had streams of articles in files. Here’s a new approach I’m using: setting up a single document with all the articles inside and a number before the title so I know where I am and I don’t have to try to remember the titles I gave articles, nor the dates I wrote them
3 – Be structured
Rather than lists of “what I’ll write, one of these days” I’m setting up a 7-day schedule (or perhaps I ought to call it 7-topic schedule) with my top 7 topics in rotation AND presetting the upcoming slots for 7-14 articles so that if I find a remark in one article is actually a topic for another one I can go pop the language in there and have my starter all ready
4 – Be simple
Many folks get stuck in the “I don’t have time to write” mindset. Frankly, this started out as a quick email – 100 words typically for all of us. I hit a roll and it’s now probably 400 words. All in about 17 minutes, without a game plan and little mental chatter – just writing away!
5 – Be aware
Imagine: Here I am typing away a quick blog comment, and presto – here’s the material for an article. At first it seemed ‘off topic’ for my own audience, yet it’ll make a great blog post and with a few tweaks I’ll be turning it into an article!
Honestly, I love article writing for all the ways I can see my own experience become helpful information for others. When you read the sentences above for the first time, what might not be apparent is that it started as a quickie message to everyone on the HAHD challenge. Once I wrote number 4 I realized I could edit this blog post and turn it into an article so I went through to soften all the “I”s in the article, added a couple of key words, etc. While I didn’t eliminate all of them, it is softer than the first pass.
Now I’m going to grab all of this, pop it into my blog and re-edit it a bit more and presto: more than 350 words – done! Fresh marketing for my own small business!
THANKS Jeff, Felicia and Keith