Work Better, Not Harder

Continuing our annual tradition, here are our top 10 picks of the best articles from the Work Better, Not Harder newsletter during 2014, not in any particular order. You need to Bite-size your Content by Brandi Good, BLG Business Solutions Your new website just went live - it looks amazing and it's chock-full of great information. You spent hours crafting the perfect blog post. You put together a newsletter with a beautiful layout and great content. You've been sharing these links all over your social media networks. And then... continue reading The Problem with Gratitude by Steve Foran, Performance Quest Can’t believe it took 7 years to figure this out! Although I was unaware of the problem, I’ve known all about the benefits of being grateful - a list which continues to grow. continue reading Have you been Asked yet Today? by Brenda Fay, BrenDaniel Productions Corp. I had a conversation with a potential client the other day and they asked me question after qu

Blog posts, newsletters, web pages and documents - these are all things we want our readers to share with others. In fact, getting people to share these things is just as important as getting them read. Getting our fans to share might not be so difficult but everyone else is busy, and sharing our content isn't top of mind. That’s why it’s so important to make it easy - really easy - to share. Sharing buttons work great and are easy to install into blog posts, newsletters and web pages. Many templated applications have widgets you can embed and Share This is also a popular option. My favourite sharing tool by far is Clicktotweet , which Anita at Twirp Communications turned me onto during one of our Team Twirp meetings. “Clicktotweet is the best, easiest and simplest way to promote and advertise your blog, website, business and stuff on Twitter.” What is a ‘click to tweet’? Here’s a simple example: Giving readers an easy way to share content will ensure it gets shared mor

Your open rate is an indication of brand recognition. Your click rate is one indication of whether your newsletter actually gets read. (How many newsletters do you open without reading?) Getting read is what raises your reputation and prompts interaction. I dislike generalizing about the relationships between list size, content type, length, frequency, and open rates. Among our clients, we have lists of 200 subscribers to over 10,000, and frequencies that vary from weekly to quarterly. This means we see a wide variation in statistics, too. Industry averages (graph in this post ): open rate - 20% click rate - 4% Please don't judge your own newsletter's success based on a comparison with these. (Who wants to be average anyway?) There are many things that impact your open and click rates. I encourage you to also look at the number of contacts who opened/clicked, and what they clicked on. The easiest of these measures to improve is your click rate. There's a

At a recent workshop, I was asked about free email marketing applications. My answer provoked a lively discussion and not everyone agreed with my position. You have many choices of bulk email service providers and each has good points and bad points. Turning out a good looking newsletter depends on using suitable software and on being quite proficient with it - whether it’s a free app or not. Free apps (or free versions) will have some or all of these drawbacks: limit on the number of subscribers limit on the number of emails you can send limit on image storage space limited options for layout and design limited or no available statistics no archive of past issues no RSS-to-email functionality limited or no auto responder functionality limited or no segmenting functionality inability to manage subscribers on multiple lists poor functionality of social media sharing buttons no auto posting to social media accounts YOU ARE ADVERTISING FOR THE APPLICATION Most of the

I've always been one to say that my work life and my family life are intertwined. Many small business owners would also say the same. I like it and I wouldn't try to separate them. Recently I was a bit taken aback to realize that I’m not using some of my business skills at home, and should be. My stepson has bipolar affective disorder and our family has been participating in weekly meetings with social workers to help us overcome the many challenges associated with the disease. When they started presenting us with skills, such as a problem solving process and active listening techniques, I immediately thought, “I know all this. It’s old hat.” The first goal setting exercise was fairly easy for me. I privately committed to three goals related to our family life and I immediately went to work to make them happen. My husband and stepson were going through the same process, also privately. About a month later, when we reviewed our goals and progress, I had completed two goa

Sometimes the image choice for your newsletter or blog post is obvious, but often not so much. This post wraps up our previous articles about graphic ideas and advice. Finding just the right image for your newsletter or blog can be time consuming and frustrating, whether you're creating it yourself or buying someone else's. Read  How to Find the RIGHT Image for tips to help shorten the process. Once you get started looking for images, you will find a wealth of copyright free or free photos you can use with credit attribution. Read Graphic Solutions for places to find images and more. Sometimes you want a look that is less staged than a purchased stock photo. Read Searching for Creative Commons Images for directions to search images via Flickr. Infographics are a great way to represent information differently than you have in the past with words. Read  Repurpose Articles into Infographics for tools and tips to create your own infographics. Create your own word c