Let’s look at ways to write e-mail messages that get results.

When you are sending information that you want your readers to act upon, and that’s the reason for most business e-mails, you want your readers to understand the message as you mean it to be understood.

First, always read your e-mail before you hit the Send button. Re-reading helps you correct typos and spot inaccuracies so that you’ll make at least a neutral impression rather than a bad one.

While re-reading your e-mail, consciously look for words that you can delete. Deleting unnecessary words gives your message the simplicity that …

Some days I just can’t find things to write about - the day just seems meh.  And while I’d like to say the cause is grabbing a pair of horse’s blinders instead of my glasses, it’s just not true.

Thankfully there’s a website for just such occasions.

Mylifeisaverage.com

My Life is Average (which is conveniently abbreviated the same way as My Life is Awesome), is part of a not-insignificant trend of anonymous public micro-blogging sites.

And that right there is what I’ll talk about.

Most of this month I’ve been talking about blogs, specifically business blogs.  And there is good reason to do …

We have been writing about business blogs lately. We are focusing on using WordPress to produce branded business blogs or blog-sites, leveraging the inherit search engine optimization advantages WordPress provides.

I gave a presentation at the Partners In Success chapter of BNI on 3/17/10 on why blog for business and what MB/I brings to the table. Here’s the narrated version.

MB/I Presentation on Business Blogs
(9-minutes)

Are you already using a blog to market your business? Let us know how it’s working for you.

Are you interested on starting one? Attend our FREE webinar.

Your web site and marketing materials are protected by copyright.

Copyright is a form of intellectual property law that protects the authorship of original works of fiction, non-fiction, music and lyrics, poetry, plays and screenplays, computer software, and architecture. On your web site, copyright protects original text as well as original artwork, music, sound recordings.
Instant copyright: Just add ink
You own the copyright on your work as soon as you put it into a perceptible, tangible form. As soon as you jot it onto notepaper or type it up on a MS Word doc, the copyright is yours. It doesn’t …

Including team biography pages on your website is a wonderful way to put a human face on your company and to provide potential clients, colleagues, and vendors with additional insight into who you are and how you roll.

However, a good bio page requires some degree of individual content gathered from every team member who is featured.  And while web designers can do a lot of things, we can’t just invent content (especially personalized content) out of thin air.

How then, should you go about gathering the information you need for team bio pages?

1. Know Your Roster

When you get started, make sure …

On Wednesday, March 31, I will be leading a 40-minute webinar on blogging.

Take a Tour of WordPress

For those of you who have not taken the leap into the world of blogging, we will spend the first 20-minutes touring the back-end of the world’s most popular blogging solution.  As part of this process you will see what goes into editing, scheduling, and publishing a blog entry as we ready the actual April 1 post for MB/I.

Get Some Tips on Content Creation

Scared of the time & brain-power commitment a successful blog requires? For the second half of the call, I will highlight …

This is the second part of a 3-part blog series focusing on producing dynamite video footage for your website while getting the most bang for your buck.

In the first installment, I offered a number …

Although we usually speak in active voice, many of us shift into passive voice when writing.  Although not always incorrect, writing in passive voice can cause confusion. Using active voice will keep your message lively and specific.

The technical details

In passive voice, the subject receives the action of a transitive verb. The focus is on the action rather than who performed that action. Consider this witty example from UNC’s The Writing Center:

Why was the road crossed by the chicken?

The object (the road) is the subject of the sentence. The action (crossing of said road) gets more attention than …

Let’s face it, even if the economy is currently pulling out of the worst recession in 70 years, money remains tight and the independent entrepreneur needs to consider ways to reduce costs while retaining their brand image and placement.

So, what can a company do on a $2500 budget?

Invest in a custom blog

For $2500 you could have a fully functional and branded blog with custom features.

What does this price buy you?

• A persistent platform you can use again and again, whenever you have an announcement or other content.
• Custom blogs can build up traffic for your own domain, giving it ready-made …
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