Organized Assistant » blogging

How to Find Great Guest Blogging Opportunities

Janet — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:30:10 +0000

In last week’s post, I gave you 6 Reasons to be a Guest Blogger. Now that I’ve (hopefully) convinced you that it’s worth your while, this week I’ll keep my promise of letting you know where you can find potential hosts, and how to approach them. 1. Your Organizing Colleagues If you know other professional organizers who blog, ask them if they would be interested in having you as a guest – you can even offer them the same opportunity in exchange! If you’re concerned about sending potential clients to your competition, talk to someone in a different region or who offers different services than you. To connect with other organizers who blog, see who has been participating in the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival or join the Organized Bloggers group on Facebook. 2. Just Google It! You probably use Google to find information about everything from where to buy comfortable dress shoes to how to install shelving in a closet, and it can be equally useful when searching for blogs who welcome posts from guest bloggers. Simply enter “be a guest blogger” in the search box, and you’ll get millions of matches. To narrow it down, add another keyword to your search, e.g. “be a guest blogger” productivity or “be a guest blogger” organizing. 3. Sign up for My Blog Guest It only takes a few minutes to sign up for this free service. Once you’re a member, you can search the database for blogs that might be a good fit for you, check out any blogs of interest, and get in touch with the owner through the private messaging system. There’s also a message board where you can let others know what you have to offer in terms of expertise. This service is also useful if you’re looking for guest bloggers, but that’s a story for another day! No matter where you find a potential host blog, take the time to check it out and make sure that:

the blog is good quality and one you will be pleased to be associated with
the audience is a good fit for you
there actually is an audience – look at Alexa for traffic statistics, and check the blog itself for comments and other signs of engagement

Once you’ve decided that you’d like to write a guest post for a particular blog, there is a right and wrong way to approach the owner. In some cases, you can submit your post through an online form, but in others you must go through a screening process first. Always check the blog for any submission guidelines, and follow them to a tee. When contacting a blog owner about writing a guest post, introduce yourself but instead of making it all about you, focus on how your post will benefit their audience. Provide a link to your blog so they can get a sense of your writing style. It’s a good idea to have a few posts pre-written before you make contact, and suggest some topics for them to choose from. Keep in mind, however, that in most cases guest posts should be original content, and not just a reprint of something you’ve already published on your own blog or that is readily available on article directories such as EzineArticles. I have a number of guest bloggers lined up for Your Organizing Business, and look forward to welcoming my first guest for 2012 this Thursday. Feel free to contact me if you’d like to be considered as well!

6 Reasons to be a Guest Blogger

Janet — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:23:17 +0000

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably noticed that once a month or so, I welcome a guest blogger. It’s usually a professional organizer, but may be anyone who is able to share some insight on a topic of interest to my audience, often one I don’t feel qualified to cover myself. In fact, guest blogging is quite popular throughout the blogosphere. Perhaps you’re wondering why someone would go to all the trouble of writing something, just to give it to someone else to post on their blog. Unless they’re being paid for their work, you might think they’d be better off publishing it on their own blog, but there are actually many benefits to guest blogging. Here are a few: 1. Reach a Broader Audience According to one of our polls, attracting new readers is the biggest challenge faced by many bloggers. Being a guest blogger for someone with a similar target audience to your own is an excellent way to get your name and your expertise in front of a bunch of potential new readers. 2. Grow Traffic to Your Own Blog As a guest blogger, you will normally be allowed to include a brief bio and link to your own blog, so those who find your post of value will often click through to learn more. 3. Grow Your Subscriber Base Once those new readers have landed on your site, there’s a good chance they’ll become subscribers, provided that your blog is engaging. You’ll find lots of tips on Your Organizing Business to help you make sure your blog represents you and your business as effectively as possible. 4. Improve Your Search Engine Positioning Although Google keeps changing the factors it uses to determine where your blog will appear in the search results, backlinks from related sites remain very important. Social sharing now plays a role as well. Since blog posts tend to be shared frequently on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, a guest post on a popular blog may benefit you more than a listing on an infrequently accessed directory site. 5. Build Relationships Guest blogging is a type of joint venture, where both parties receive something of value. While the guest blogger receives the benefits listed in this post, the host has an opportunity to take a break from writing and give their readers another point of view. 6. Write About Something Different Ideally, your blog is written for a specific audience – your target market – but you have a wealth of knowledge that goes far beyond what they would find useful. Guest blogging allows you to put on a different hat and explore another topic. Many of my guest bloggers have done just that, such as when Janice Russell shared her Secrets to Growing Your Organizing Team. I did the same thing recently when I wrote a guest post on Paper-based Tools for Organizing Your Job Search for Promotion Career Services. I plan to talk about ways to find guest blogging opportunities in a future post, but for now, why don’t you consider writing something for Your Organizing Business? I would especially love to hear from someone who is actively using Google+ or Pinterest as a marketing tool, but would welcome other topics of interest to professional organizers as well. Please contact me and let me know what you have in mind and we’ll go from there. Have you ever been a guest blogger? Did you find it beneficial? Please share your experience (and a link to your post, if you like) in the Comments!

A Shout-out to Our 2011 Supporters

Janet — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:12:02 +0000

With 2011 drawing to a close, it’s time for something that’s become an annual tradition here at Your Organizing Business. For my final post of the year, I’d like to acknowledge the many professional organizers and other supporters who have shared their time and expertise with my readers in some way.

The following individuals contributed as guest bloggers or participated in a blog interview this year. Simply click on their names to read their posts.

The Professional Organizers Blog Carnival has continued to grow in popularity, with a total of 191 posts submitted by 61 professional organizers, including seven new Professional Organizers Blog Carnival Star Bloggers. A big thanks to:

Ellen Delap
Audrey Cupo
Linda Samuels
Ramona Creel
Deb Lee
Elaine Shannon
Clare Kumar
Jane Veldhoven
Lisa Montanaro
Tracy Hoth
Jeri Dansky
Julie Bestry
Nancy Borg
Geralin Thomas
Janine Adams
Lauren Giammarco
Lelah Baker-Rabe
Master Cruz
Natalie Conrad
Pauline Wiles
Rivka Caroline
Sue West
Angela Esnouf
Barbara Tako
Jane Woolsey
Janice Russell
Jonda Beattie
Leslie Josel
Michelle Panzlaff
Stephanie LH Calahan
Debbie Pendell
Hazel Thornton
Heather Burke
Hellen Buttigieg
Jacquie Ross
Janet Baker
Laura Wittmann
Paul H. Burton
Shelley Molitor
Alys Milner
Ann Acquaviva
Anne Blumer
Deanne Kelleher
Debbie Stanley
Jacki Hollywood Brown
Jennifer Crutchfield
Jodi Granok
Kate Brown
Kimberly Eagles
Krista Colvin
Kristin Lindstrom
Laura Lawrence
Linda Vanderkolk
Linda Williams
Lurlene Anderson
Margaret Lukens
Margarita Ibbott
MaryJo Monroe
Michelle O'Sullivan
Oksana Bellas
Sheri Bruneau

With such a wealth of information and industry contacts at your fingertips, I hope you’ll spend a little time reading or re-reading their posts, leaving some comments, and expanding your online network. I know that many of you support this blog by leaving comments and/or sharing your favorite posts by email or social media, and your efforts are appreciated as well. As you prepare your Blogging Plan for 2012, you may find the following resources helpful for generating content ideas:

2012 Blogging Calendar & Planner (free download)
Professional Organizers Blog Carnival monthly topics for 2012

And if you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to Your Organizing Business by RSS or email for lots of ideas for your blog and other aspects of your business! Have a happy and prosperous new year!

Develop Your Blogging Plan

Janet — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:10:43 +0000

I’ve heard a number of organizers say “I just don’t have time to blog,” but often, half the battle is planning ahead. Deciding in advance what you’re going to blog about will give you an opportunity to think about how you’re going to address a particular topic, and to write at least some of your posts ahead of time. The key to successful blogging is to continuously create compelling content, and with a new year just around the corner, now is the perfect time to begin working on your editorial calendar, so I’d like to share a few helpful resources. Blogging Planner & Calendar A great way to get started is to download your free Blogging Planner & Calendar from Blog Energizer. The 2012 planner has a full page for each week with a grid for you to schedule your posts as well as blog-related emails and promotional activities and other notes. Each weekly page also includes special dates that might inspire a blogging idea, such as Clean Out Your Computer day (February 13), Simplify Your Life Week (first week of August) and Procrastination Awareness Month (April), as well as a blogging tip, like

Improve your titles. Add specific info – like price, time investments, results – instead of generalizations.

Throughout the Blogging Planner & Calendar, you’ll also find full-page articles to help you with a particular aspect of your blog, such as “Growing Your Traffic.” This has been one of my favorite blogging resources for several years, and I encourage you to download a copy. Blog Post Ideas plug-in for WordPress If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog (if you don’t, we need to talk!), you can install this plug-in, also from Blog Energizer. You’ll find it especially valuable if you like to draft your posts right within your blog dashboard, because each time you go to create a new post, you’ll be presented with a topic idea. You can configure it to display topics related to home, business, and/or health, depending on the focus of your blog. You can purchase the Blog Post Ideas plug-in for WordPress for only $4.00, or receive it free with any WordPress Package from Organized Assistant®. Other Sources of Blogging Ideas There are entire blogs dedicated to inspiring bloggers and other writers. Here are a few that offer topic ideas:

If you think about it, your daily life is probably filled with things you can blog about! Consider the following questions:

What have people asked you in workshops, emails, and consultations?
What have people in your target market posted in forums or on social networks?
What organizing products do you use or recommend most often?
Do you work with complementary service providers? Who are they and what do they do?
What organizing books have you read lately? How about other books that might be useful or inspiring to your clients?

The possibilities are endless! Still feeling overwhelmed? Contact me for a free consultation. I help a number of professional organizers with their blogging strategy, and would love a chance to speak with you to explore ways we can work together for your blogging success in 2012.

Bored of your Blog? 10 Ways to Spice Things Up

Janet — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Do you sometimes feel like you’re just churning out articles week after week, looking for new ways to say the same old thing? Maybe you’re in a blogging rut! Although there’s a lot to be said for consistency, doing something a little different will spice things up for you and your readers alike. There’s no rule that says all of your blog posts have to be in the same format. Here are 10 ideas for you to consider:

Create a game for your readers to play, like Geralin Thomas did in Hoarders Quiz: How Well Do You Know A&E’s Hoarding Experts?
Share one of your favorite quotes, like Monica Ricci did in Quote: Who are they?
Post a photo that speaks for itself, like Marcia Francois did in Wordless Wednesday – neat stack of clothes
Embed a video, like Elaine Shannon did in Admin Day – Dealing with the Dirty Dozen
Announce an achievement, like Lisa Montanaro did in Lisa Montanaro Chosen as Moderator of Golden Circle Ask the Organizer Panel for 2012 National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) Conference
Compile interesting content by others, like Julie Bestry did in Paper Doll Organizing Carnival: The Inaugural Edition
Ask your readers a question and share their answers, like Stephanie Calahan did in Creative Uses for 3M Post It Notes
Profile a colleague, like Krista Colvin did in The Organizer's House... featuring Clare Kumar
Invite someone to be a guest blogger, like Heather Burke did in Monday Guest Post: Karen Donaldson
Host a contest, like Laura did in Menu Plan Monday – Oct 31/11 + Giveaway

If you’re stumped for topics to blog about, check out our new Blog Post Ideas plug-in for WordPress and get 540 ideas for less than a penny each!

3 Ways to Attract Readers to Your Blog

Janet — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:52:39 +0000

When we asked our readers to identify their biggest blogging challenge, the number one answer was “attracting readers.” It can be very discouraging to spend valuable time researching a topic and writing what you think is an amazing post, then to get no comments, retweets, or other indications that anyone even read it. Sometimes it’s enough to make you wonder why you’re blogging at all! Before you throw in the towel, ask yourself the following questions. 1. Do you blog strategically? Is your blog about you and your interests, or do you consider the type of information that your target market is looking for? When you answer your ideal client’s most pressing questions, using terminology they can relate to, you stand a much better chance of them finding your blog and sticking around to read it. 2. Do you read and comment on other blogs? Do you know what blogs are popular with your target audience? If not, find out! If you do, make a point of reading them as well. Leave comments that demonstrate your subject knowledge, without giving a sales pitch. Most blogs allow you to include a link back to your own blog, and people who see value in your comments will often click through to explore what you have written. 3. Do you take advantage of social media? After you’ve spent time and effort to write a new blog post, don’t just put it up there and hope someone notices! Promote your blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media sites that are popular with your target audience. Even if you only use Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family, it’s a great way to make sure they’re aware of what it is that you do and how you can help the people they know. Make it easy for others to promote your content by taking advantage of one or more of the many social sharing tools that are available. I’ll be expanding on these strategies and more in my session on Blogging: Beyond the Basics at the POC 2011 National Conference in Toronto this November, and I hope to see you there! In the meantime, please let me know how I can help you with your blogging strategy. What is YOUR biggest blogging challenge?

Is Your Blog Well-Organized?

Janet — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:25:55 +0000

The more time readers spend on your blog, the more opportunity you have to make a lasting impression. To keep people on your blog longer, you need to ensure that they can find the information that interests them, quickly and easily. With that in mind, I've developed a questionnaire to help you determine how effectively your blog is organized. Do you use Categories to organize your posts? If yes, score 2 points. Categories act as a Table of Contents to your blog. Unlike a book, where related information is organized into chapters, you might blog about a certain topic several times over the span of many years. Organizing your posts into clearly defined categories will help readers find those posts with little effort. Do you have more than 12 Categories? If yes, deduct 1 point. Instead of being a helpful guide to your blog, a lengthy list of categories can be overwhelming and make it difficult for readers to decide where to go next. Categories should be fairly broad with minimal overlapping. If a post fits under three or more different categories, you probably have too many. Do you use Tags to organize your posts? If yes, score 2 points. If Categories are your Table of Contents, think of Tags as your index. Here's where you can get really specific. It's not unusual to have hundreds of tags on one blog, so you probably won't want to display a list as you do with Categories. What's more customary is a tag cloud, or a list of tags on each post which are linked to other posts with those same tags, as seen on this blog. Do you display your Blog Archives by date? Sorry, you don't get any points for this one. Archives by date have very little value to the reader. How likely is it that someone will go to your blog wanting to read that post you published last May? Unless it's related to a specific event, it's not likely at all. Do you even remember when you wrote your own posts? Do you show a list of Related Posts on each of your posts? If yes, score 2 points. WordPress and other popular blogging platforms offer a number of options for displaying posts which may be similar to the current one. The nRelate plug-in, which I use on this blog, allows you to customize how and where your related posts appear, in a number of different ways. Does your blog have a Search function? If yes, score 4 points. This, in my opinion, is the most important feature of all. People today are very busy and have very short attention spans. If someone is looking for specific information, they don't want to have scroll through pages of your archives just to find out whether you've ever covered that topic in your blog. A search box will let them locate wherever you've used a specific word or phrase, regardless of how you've categorized or tagged your posts. How did you do? What steps might you take to improve your score?

5 Sources for Blog Content You Already Have at Your Fingertips

Janet — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:44:18 +0000

The world is full of ideas and information you can use on your blog, but you don't always have to work hard at coming up with a topic, and then spend even more time researching it. If you've ever completed any of the following projects, take a look at them - you just might be surprised at the wealth of material you have on hand! Articles If you've written articles for your own newsletter or for other print or online publications, you may be able to re-use them on your blog. A short article can probably be reproduced as is, or with just a few updates, whereas longer articles can possibly be split into two or more separate blog posts with minor revisions to add an appropriate introduction and conclusion to each. Seminars, Workshops and Presentations If you do any public speaking, you've already spent many hours researching your topics and preparing your speaker notes. If the information is of interest to a live audience, it's sure to be equally useful to your blog readers. A short presentation contains enough material for at least one blog post, and longer sessions might become the basis for an entire series, spread out over a longer period of time. Any handouts that you've created can likely be crafted into blog posts as well. Books and E-books If you're the author of a book or an e-book, why not share an excerpt on your blog? In addition to providing your readers with some valuable information, you may find that people are more inclined to make a purchase when they have a good feel for what to expect. Videos Watching video is becoming one of the most popular online activities. According to comScore, Inc., 172 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in April for an average of 14.9 hours per viewer. If you're taking advantage of this trend by creating how-to videos and posting them on YouTube or other video sharing websites, there's no reason you can't post those same videos on your blog. Video Showcase, a component of the Display Buddy collection of premium WordPress plug-ins, allows you to display thumbnail images of YouTube and Vimeo videos on your blog, which are clickable links to the videos themselves. If you'd prefer to embed videos directly in your posts, check out the VidEmbed plug-in. Not all readers will be willing to take the time to sit and watch a 10 or 15 minute video, so you might consider including a text version in your post as well. Audio Have you ever delivered a teleclass or been a guest on someone's podcast? Do you have a recording of it? That could also be great material for your blog, whether you use the whole recording or a selected excerpt. As in the case of video, you may want to include a text version for the benefit of those who prefer to read than to listen. These are just a few sources of material you've created that you may be able to repurpose for your blog. What others can you think of?

5 Ways to Get More Mileage from Your Blog

Janet — Tue, 03 May 2011 12:32:45 +0000

Whether blogging is your passion or something you feel you have to do, I'm sure you put a lot of time and effort into creating your content. No matter how good a writer you are, most people will only read what you've posted recently, but with a little creativity, you can repurpose what you've written and get it working for you! Mix and Match Have you ever missed out on an opportunity to submit an article or blog post to an online or printed publication, because you couldn't find the time to write something new? That's too bad! You've got a bunch of great material at your fingertips, and just because they asked for something original doesn't mean you have to start from scratch. Why not take selections from several related posts and combine them into a new one? You'll need to do a little editing to make it flow properly, but it'll take a lot less time than coming up with something brand new. Reuse and Recycle Your old blog posts don't have to disappear into obscurity! Some, such as event announcements, may be time-sensitive, but organizing principles don't change, so a list of tips you prepared two years ago will be equally useful today. All you need is a way to promote them once they've disappeared from your home page and your subscribers have deleted them from their inboxes or RSS readers. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that once or twice a day, I tweet a link to one of my older posts. I do this using a WordPress plug-in called Tweet Old Posts I installed after reading about it on Site Sketch 101, and it's doing a great job of bringing my earlier work to the attention of newer readers and reviving the discussions on those posts. It can be configured to exclude certain categories or even specific posts, and you can decide how often you want it to tweet as well as the time frame of posts you want it to choose from. If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog and you've been blogging for a while, I highly recommend that you try this plug-in. But even if you don't, there's no reason you can't post links to your older posts on Twitter, Facebook, or elsewhere. You can even organize the process by using a pre-scheduling tool such as TweetDeck or HootSuite. Refresh and Renew Some things do change. Maybe you wrote a really great post a few years ago, but some of the information is now out of date. There's absolutely no reason not to take that post, remove the parts that are obsolete, and replace them with something new and fresh. But instead of keeping it buried in your archives, delete the old one and publish the revised edition as a brand new post. Create a Compilation Once you've been blogging for several years, there's a good chance that you've touched on similar subjects from time to time. For example, perhaps every year you've written a post about getting organized for back to school, or getting organized for the holidays. This year, instead of scratching your head to come up with some new ideas, make it easy on yourself and make a list of your previous articles, with the titles linked to the original posts. Most readers won't have seen them the first time, and those that did aren't likely to remember and will probably enjoy reading them again. Build a Book Do you ever read your own blog and think, "This is great stuff. It's too bad I couldn't sell it!" Who says you can't? ProBlogger Darren Rowse's PDF workbook 31 Days to Build a Better Blog was based on a series of blog posts that made up a month-long challenge to his readers. Since he launched the workbook in 2009, he's sold over 19,000 copies! That's probably more than most of us can realistically aspire to, considering the size of Rowse's audience, but it proves that creating a book or e-book from blog content is a viable strategy. By the way, the price of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is going from $19.95 to $29.99 on May 10, 2011, so if it sounds like something you could use, be sure to order it before the price increase kicks in! These are just a few of the ways you can repurpose your blog content. What others can you think of?

How Much Time Should I Spend on Marketing?

Janet — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:27:35 +0000

After engaging Organized Assistant to help her implement her blogging and social media strategy, a professional organizer asked me how much time she should plan to devote to these activities. This is such an important question that I decided to answer it here on my blog. To begin with, let's look at marketing as a whole. Regardless of whether you've just become a professional organizer or you've been at it for years, and whether your organizing business is your full-time career or a part-time venture while you work at another job, attend school, or care for your young children, marketing is an essential activity that needs to be scheduled on an ongoing basis. When you're in the start-up phase of your business, you should be spending nearly all of your working hours on marketing activities. If your greatest priority is working with clients, and your available time slots aren't filled, then you need to put forth every effort to filling them! As your business grows, you will obviously need to cut back the time you spend on marketing so you can serve your clients, but never make the mistake of thinking you're too busy for marketing. If you fail to keep promoting your business during busy periods, once things settle down, you may find yourself with no clients lined up, and back at square one again! My recommendation is that you devote a minimum of 20% of your working hours to marketing your organizing business. By that, I don't mean you should be spending 8 or more hours a week on social media alone. Websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be valuable marketing tools, but should not be your only resource. People are much more likely to do business with you after they've had the opportunity to know, like, and trust you. Although this can be accomplished online, if your primary service is providing in-person organizing services in homes or businesses, or live training in the form of presentations, seminars, or workshops, you need to spend a good portion of your marketing time attending local networking events. Social media sites can then become a tool for staying in touch with the people you've met in person and for connecting with other people in your area that you can then invite to events you're attending. You might find it easiest if you set aside one day or two half-days for marketing every week. To make the most of this time, plan your activities in advance. On different occasions they may include attending business networking events, writing blog posts, posting to your social media profiles, engaging with others on social networks, updating your website, and designing flyers or other materials. As your business grows, it might become challenging to fit all of these activities into your calendar. When that happens, it may be time to think about delegating some of them to Organized Assistant so that you can focus on what you do best! How much time do YOU spend on marketing?