Business Tips | Strawberry Communications: Writing & PR

Three simple tips for increasing traffic to your blog

May 20, 2017 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

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Tips of attracting readers to your blog. Photo: unsplash.com

It takes time to write content for your blog, so you want to make sure that it’s worth the effort. This is why you need to take action to increase the traffic to your blog, especially if you have just started out and traffic is still on the low side. There is obviously a lot of competition out there when it comes to blogs, but this does not mean you cannot attract a good audience.

Even if there are plenty of blogs out there in the same arena as you, you can still get the successful results you are looking for. If you make sure your blog stands out you will increase traffic, and people will share your content with others. Here are three tips on how you can help make this happen:

1. Write with a specific audience in mind

The most important part of any blog is the content; it has to be something that people want to read. If you are writing a blog for your business, you should already have a good idea of what your potential customers are like, and what they are interested in from conducting customer research. The topics that interest them are what you should be writing about.

If you do not focus the content you produce on the people you want to attract to your blog, you are going to make it a lot harder to increase traffic.

2. Do not be afraid of SEO

Some people have become a bit afraid of using keywords given Google’s efforts to improve content, and have reduced the number of keyword stuffing occurrences. The fact is, you should not be afraid of using keywords to attract additional traffic to your blog. All you have to do is make sure they are relevant to your content and fit well within that topic. You can learn more about SEO and the use of keywords to help you make best use of them for your blog.

3. Encourage influencers to guest blog for you

A great way to attract traffic to your blog is to persuade someone who is considered to be an influencer to write for you. Their followers are likely to be attracted to your blog to read the influencer’s post. Not only does this increase the number of people visiting your blog, but if your blog is good enough they will hopefully come back and read your own blog posts.

It’s not always easy to attract these influencers to write for you and it may involve parting with some cash. You could also try offering some form of publicity on your website in return, or access to free products or services.

All of the tips in this article should help you to increase the amount of traffic to your blog. You also need to remember to share blog posts across your social media channels as much as possible. People are only going to visit your blog if they know about it.

This is a sponsored guest post by Trent Anderson.

Filed Under: Business Tips Tagged With: attracting readers to your blog, blog influencer, blog marketing, blogger, blogging, Guest blog, Quickcliks, SEO

7 Tips for Starting Your Own Business While Being Fully Employed

September 28, 2016 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell 1 Comment

Image attribution:
https://pixabay.com/en/student-typing-keyboard-text-woman-849825/

Guest post by Jill Phillips

Creating a business from the ground up might be incredibly challenging, but it could also provide you with complete financial freedom. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs must continue to hold down a full-time job while they are getting their new business started.

Here are seven tips you can use to make the most out of every minute of the day while juggling your current career, your company, and your personal life.

1. Plan everything for a great start

Even small business owners who have no other careers must be as methodical as possible when it comes to the growth of their company, let alone aspiring entrepreneurs who have full-time jobs. The first thing you should do is create a filing system for all the information on your business and the industry you are in. Once you have everything stored and categorised methodically, you can go ahead and create a business plan that will help you do everything step by step. Your business plan should include your short-term and long-term goals, the state of the industry, legal information, and a financial structure.

2. Manage your time

It is all too easy to waste a few minutes or hours every day, and that will have a negative impact on your new business as well as your personal life. You will most likely need to sit down with your family and come up with a firm schedule every week. No matter how well you manage your time, you must also be ready to make sacrifices. Many entrepreneurs work at least six days a week and have to cut back on their hobbies and leisure time. You can also speak with your current boss to see if you could work remotely a few days a week. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Tips Tagged With: business partnership, business planning, education, Jill Phillips, Networking, personal development, small business tips, starting a business, startup, time management

What happened to Twitter?

August 17, 2016 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Image from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/epw/4341554771

When I discovered Twitter in 2008 I was a freelance writer and fledgling business owner working from the third bedroom of our home. I was also a new-ish mum looking for different ways to connect with others in the same situation.

I had been blogging for two years already and was an active member of a few online communities for women in business and mums in business. It was one of these online friends who suggested I look at Twitter in 2008, and once I did I saw a whole world open up.

Physically, more than socially, isolated, I set up an account and dived into a few conversations with people I vaguely knew with the aim of building a bigger social network. For the next few years I was a huge fan of everything Twitter because I could have amazing, funny and inspirational conversations with so many people. I followed all my IRL friends, everyone I met at networking events and anyone who wrote or presented anything I was interested in. My #followfriday (or #ff if there were lots of names) list grew week by week until I became overwhelmed by it. The point is, Twitter was the place to be for someone like me.

Guest post: 5 Ways Cloud Technology Can Help Optimise Your Business

July 24, 2016 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/business-client-cloud-communication-17686/

While not exactly a new technology, the speed with which cloud computing is transforming business models and efficiency seems to have accelerated over the past few years. As the world of data and information continues to expand, the cloud grows with it.

Cloud computing has many benefits and holds the potential to dramatically change the businesses that adopt it.

Improved Operations

Cloud computing enables businesses large and small to move some of their operation to third-party servers, which allows for variable data packages, rapid expansion, and mobility without the fear of downtime, crashes, or permanently lost data. This allows a small business to access resources that would have been cost prohibitive for them in the past. These operations can also compete against corporations with far more funding, causing small and medium-size businesses to go from being constrained to certain geographies because of budget limitations to having the ability to scale globally with significantly reduced overhead costs. All of this can happen without building a physical data centre at a new location. Instead of deploying on-site infrastructure to run their operations, companies can access infrastructure as a service, via managed service providers. Cloud technologies enable larger companies to create a modular organisation. Cloud technology permits better participation in small teams, which allows organisations to be more modular and less hierarchical, lessening the risk of the collapse of any department or its unit.

Storytelling Through Data

June 1, 2016 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

A departure from my usual articles about writing and marketing, I thought I’d share some data analysis with you this month. I wrote about using data to tell a story two years ago and had a great response so thought it was worth revisiting.

For those readers who have been following this newsletter for a number of years you will know I’m now in the third year of my PhD. This is the year when everything I’ve been doing over the past two years is starting to come together and I can see how my project will actually look (it’s about time!).

Where does data fit into journalism?

One thing the uni has been very keen for me to do is interact with my peers. This has a twofold effect in that it helps me build a network around my research interest, but also gets me to step outside my little study bubble and share what it is I’m working on with others. I now research in an office with four other PhD candidates, and last week I was asked to share my research methods with the digital technology special interest group I’m a member of. The data I’m sharing here is what I put together for the presentation.

Before I go too much further, I should refresh your memory on my research topic. I am looking at how journalists use social media texts to report on crisis events. To do this I am investigating three key crisis events from the UK – the London Bombings, UK Riots and Lee Rigby’s murder. These events span an eight-year period between 2005 and 2013, which gives me a chance to track longitudinal developments in journalist’s use of user-generated social media texts as a news source.

5 Reasons Podcasting Boosts Business

April 7, 2016 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Image: Unsplash.com

Podcasts are the self-help books of the tens: great information about business, hobbies, interests or just life packaged into bit-sized chunks to be consumed at a time convenient to the listener.

I was very slow to come to the podcast party, but now I’ve walked through that door I can’t get enough! I frequently listen to Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait’s podcast So You Want To Be A Writer while baking for the week ahead on Sunday mornings or walking my dog (if my walking buddy Suse isn’t joining us). While I’m driving to Hobart for PhD appointments at UTAS I tap into some Straight and Curly with Kelly Exeter and Carly Jacobs, Chat 10 Looks 3 with Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb, This American Life’s Serial or Media and Politics from the Shorenstein Center. I’ve also recently discovered Monocle’s Meet the Writers and The Stack podcasts and have been devouring those to catch up while cooking at night.

This list includes a mix of writing, journalism, reading, some life skills and a bit of fun, which I think is a great mix for my brain. I love that I can combine building my knowledge on a topic and listening to something I enjoy while also doing something else like cooking, driving or walking. The portability of podcasts means I can be hands-free while listening so I can tune in anywhere and any time.

Guest Post: Remedy Your Writer’s Blocks With These 4 Tips

December 23, 2015 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Writer’s block is common among all writers, whether you’re an amateur essayist or professional author. This inconvenient condition can slow your productivity and clog your creativity. You can overcome this obstacle through various brain exercises, the right environment and effective tools.

Here are some of the best techniques that will help you overcome your writer’s block:

Idea Journal

Keep a small, transportable journal with you, so you can write down your ideas whenever creative lightning strikes. You can also utilise the notes app on your smartphone or tablet, if material paper and a writing utensil is too inconvenient. Ideas will often come in the wake of your slumber, after you’ve had a notable dream, or when you are in the process of a mundane task, like driving, walking or showering. When your mind isn’t preoccupied by external stimuli or an intellectual task, it will freely roam into more creative realms.

How to Crowdfund Your Business

November 26, 2015 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Photo credit: unsplash.com

I presented a workshop on crowdfunding for business for Business & Employment in Launceston last night and I wanted to share my slides and also the questions you must answer before you get started.

Once upon a time it was difficult to find the money needed to start a business or fund a project if you hadn’t saved it yourself or didn’t have an existing relationship with a bank.

So what other funding options are there if you want to get started in business but don’t have all the funds saved? There are no interest loans, like NILS, small business grants, funding and assistance from the government and crowdfunding.

You may have heard the term crowdfunding, especially in reference to people who are trying to raise money to share their project or business with the world, and wondered how it might work for you.

Million-Dollar Business Lessons from Leonie Dawson

June 25, 2015 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Who doesn’t want a hug from Leonie Dawson?

Leonie Dawson is not your average million-dollar business owner. She has green chalked hair that matches her flowing, mismatched clothing. She swears. A lot. Her presentation bullet points are pretty pictures and she advocates all things hippy.

But all these things do not matter when you have the successful ingredients to run a successful business. And Leonie has that in abundance. Leonie happily shares how she grew her business from $30,000 turnover to $1 million last year; and how she plans to double that amount to top $2 million this year.

I live-tweeted Leonie’s tips from last night’s presentation and then collated them on Storify, but my three top take homes were:

Guest post: Winning Pitches via Online Meetings

March 19, 2015 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Photo credit: unsplash.com

Nowadays, more and more of our business is happening virtually, from online retail to video conferences. While unable to achieve the same intimate quality that face-to-face communication can, virtual meetings are more cost-effective and bring international businesses together with a few simple clicks.

When delivering a sales pitch or new business proposition, your personality can play such a big part in winning the trust and support of your audience. It’s much harder to achieve that same level of personal connection via webcam, but that doesn’t mean a virtual pitch can’t be just as successful.

Before you even begin your pitch, make sure you thoroughly research who you’re pitching to, even if you have interacted with this person or company before. Things could have changed, and you need to be as up to date as possible. This will help you tailor your material so it only contains directly relevant information, and could help bridge a more solid connection between you and your listener.