Can Iceland's Volcano Drive Blog Traffic?

One way to drive traffic to your blog is to use current popular news stories as a jump off point to hook your audience. Readers often search current news stories and, if your post headline contains one of them, the same thought process will have them following the link to your blog post.

For example, emergency preparedness planning was a hot topic during the swine flu pandemic warnings in 2009. Emergency preparedness is less discussed with the story dropping out of the headlines. If you would like to open up the topic again with your clients, try using the Icelandic volcano eruptions and the havoc resulting at UK airports as a jumping off point.

Be sure to include the story headline in your blog post title to have your readers clicking in and keep the post content relevant to keep them there.

zone 3 gardening, bird watching, chasing dogs and snapping photos somewhere around sleepy hollow road

Comments

  1. Brenda FayMay 12, 2010 at 8:36 AM

    Hi Linda,
    Yes, it's a good idea! I read it!
    Brenda

    ReplyDelete
  2. Locksmiths Near YouJuly 23, 2011 at 8:45 PM

    Thanks for the information, it has been very enlightening.
    Locksmiths

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Content Ideas for Consultants - Getting Started (Part 1)

Image
Just this week I heard it again: “If I start a newsletter, what would I put in it?” While I can think of lots of content ideas for just about any business owner I meet, it’s not so easy for everyone. In fact, it wasn’t always easy for me either. It gets easier, and you get better, with practice. For consultants, there’s an added bonus to spending time creating marketing content and that's learning . Benjamin Franklin said, “There is no better way to learn than to teach.” Sharing valuable content is teaching and, when you’re creating content for your blog or newsletter, you’ll also be doing research, checking assumptions, and developing opinions . If you’re a new business owner, or new to developing content, finding a place to start might feel like picking a needle out of a haystack. In this series of posts, I'll explain how to get started and accomplish other goals, too. Build Your Confidence Since confidence comes from writing about what you know , start with crea
Keep reading »

Prevent Scope Creep

Image
All big projects have the potential for scope creep - uncontrolled changes in project scope. It results in missed deadlines, budget overruns and altered deliverables. We entrepreneurs can be guilty of this when it comes to operating our businesses. It’s easy to get distracted by new opportunities and ideas. It’s sort of what small business is all about: being flexible enough to jump on opportunities. I’ve been guilty of doing this myself. It can be fun and challenging but sometimes not very productive. I’ve created 30 or so workshops that I have no desire to sell. My branding and website have undergone many renditions. Was I being productive during those hundreds of hours? It felt like it. I was busy but, oops, I wasn’t making any money. In January 2010 I set my theme for that year to be ‘FOCUS’. It stayed my theme for 2011 and I’m finally seeing the results of my intentions. (In fact, I’m satisfied enough to pick a new theme for 2012.) I did it by creating simple rules for
Keep reading »

Consider Point of View for All Your Writing

Image
I've done it. You've done it. And they've done it. I'm talking about mixing up points of view when writing. And also using the right point of view for the right purposes. Grammarly has a quick little article explaining  First, Second, and Third Person in case you don't remember from school. Here are some things to consider from a content marketing perspective: Articles, blog posts: Mixing up I-we-you-they-me all in one article might cause confusion. There may be reasons for including all of these words in one article but it's worth re-reading to check. Using both second and third person is something I see often and probably accounts for most of the editing I do. If you are writing to/for your reader, consider using the second person. If you are writing about your own experiences, of course, you have to use the first person. Website: If your business IS you, I recommend writing in the first person (about yourself) and the second person (for features
Keep reading »

Do what Feels Right to You

Image
photo by tempophage I had what I thought were a couple of smashing ideas for the newsletter design for a new client. She politely declined. Of course, I asked, "Why?" (I must have been a real challenge at age 4.) The discussion that ensued was insightful and interesting and helped me to understand my client's brand, image and personality so much better. Sometimes 'bad' ideas lead to great things. The lesson here? When someone you're working with throws out an idea that they're obviously excited about, don't jump on the bandwagon if it doesn't feel right. Stand up for what's authentic to you , right there, on the spot. Also, embrace the opportunity to explain your position so that everyone can get on the same page. That is how relationships are built.   Click to Tweet this Article
Keep reading »

That was a Great Conversation But...

Image
Imagine you've just gotten off the phone from a lively conversation with a prospect that lasted an hour. Your purpose in having the call was to build a new business relationship or build on an established one. You both discovered you have much in common and had lots to talk about. What was expected to be a half-hour call became a delightful chat that extended to an hour. You hang up feeling really good about the personal connection you made and pat yourself on the back. Then reality strikes. You check your calendar and realize you're now behind schedule. Your other planned work for the day has been compromised and you'll have to work a longer day or bump something to tomorrow. "That's OK," you think, "It was time well spent." But wait, it's not about you. The person you were speaking with undoubtedly feels the same way. Even though they enjoyed the conversation, now they are also struggling to fulfill their commitments and maintain their work sch
Keep reading »

Your Brand is more than Your Logo

Image
I’m a visual person yet I find it hard to describe our own branding concisely: lots of white space, clean, bright spots of colour, fun but professional. If you came to me and said that, how would I design a newsletter (or website or blog) for you? Being able to describe your visual branding is important when you’re working with professionals such as designers and other consultants. How can they help you best if they don’t ‘get’ your brand? How do you describe your own visual branding? Write it out right now and be concise. Use lots of descriptive words - make up words if you have to. Can you get what’s in your head onto paper? Looking at examples is very helpful. Look at others’ websites and newsletters. Identify what you like and don’t like and put it into words on paper. Do you like curves or straight lines? Bold or subtle? Professional or whimsical? White space or lots of colour? Simple or busy? Keep going... don't stop here. It’s not easy to do bu
Keep reading »

Does Your Mother Know What You Do? (Part 2)

Image
It's hard to believe it's been over 4 years since I took my mother to her first (and only) business networking event and wrote about it here . I'm a big fan of the "Mom test" for simplifying our small business marketing messages but I didn't fully appreciate it until yesterday morning. I was driving out Waverley Road taking the long, more scenic route to Bedford with my mom in the passenger seat. Because she's my biggest fan, I was telling her about some of the exciting new things going on with my business. Oh, she was making all the right noises and nodding, as moms will, but that's when it hit me - she really had no clue as to what I was talking about, much less about why it's interesting and valuable work. I thought I passed the Mom test years ago when I explained I do newsletters and websites and generally help small business owners implement their marketing plans. She could, and does, tell people that. But since she's never used
Keep reading »

How to Find the RIGHT Image

Image
A friend asked me to help her out by finding images of people talking on the phone to be used to market a new service. I like crestock.com for images (because they’re reasonably priced and easy to buy from) so I logged in and started searching for ‘manager on phone’. Great – 3030 images in the search results. I started scrolling through and saving images to a collection for later review. Good images, but none of them were really ‘speaking’ to me. Then I came across this one . It spoke to me – it stopped me and made me laugh. It reminded me of similar circumstances that I’d been in. Who hasn't goofed around at work now and then? The headline I imagined was: “Are your sales people avoiding the phone?” If I had known the headline first, I could have zeroed in on images that resonated it, rather than wading through hundreds of bland images of people talking on the phone. If you’re going to search for images , develop a few headlines first. When you have more than a broad sub
Keep reading »

Old Marketing Tricks

Image
"Yes, it's an old marketing trick to "accidentally" make a mistake in an email campaign so you can resend an email shortly thereafter to increase the number of times people see your message." This was the lead message in an email I received recently which included a correction to information which I had indeed received a couple of hours before. Making a deliberate mistake is a darn poor excuse to get into people's inboxes. Making ANY mistake doesn't reflect well on you, deliberate or not. Do your marketing well and you won't need to resort to tricks. And you won't need to fix mistakes. If a *real* mistake happens, here is my advice about how to deal with it . Let's avoid those made-up mistakes completely. Click to Tweet this Article
Keep reading »

eMail Productivity: Automate Customer Reminders

Image
For small business owners, nurturing long term relationships is critical, so keeping in touch with past customers to encourage them to return is a worthwhile activity. Dentists have been doing it for years with their cute cartoon postcards reminding us to book our next check-up. It's time to take that process online and use our bulk email application to automate it. And we can apply it to more than patients. While this process can be handled exactingly by a workflow app, you don't need the expensive software to make it work for you. One of our long time clients, HealthWalks Shoe Store and Orthotic Clinic in New Glasgow, NS, has been sending reminders by email for a few years now. Here's how it works... Initially I created the template based on a postcard HealthWalks had been mailing to customers one year after receiving their orthotics. Now, each month I receive a list of contacts who have just passed the anniversary date of when they received their orthotic
Keep reading »