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February 10, 2012 by admin

Five things that worked for me in 2011

Happy new year, everybody. Clearly one New Year’s resolution of mine wasn’t to get out the first edition of Changing Lanes in a timely fashion. Still, let the record show this edition came out in January 2012.

One of my “traditions” before setting my goals for the coming year is to review what’s worked in the previous. Those things can be tools for business or things that helped me do business better. Here’s the top five of things that worked well for me last year:

Constant Contact – Social Media

It may seem like a trivial add-on to an already great service. Yet being able to share your e-newsletter to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media serves a great purpose if you’re trying to be consistent with your social media efforts. Even better, you don’t need to take a class on how to do it. Just check a few boxes and it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning

I’ve been using Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning program for six years and enjoyed the incredible workout these bodyweight exercises provided in a short period of time. One in particular, Hindu Squats, I’ve found to be a tremendous cure for writer’s block.

While a lot of people find a trip to the gym or a run a great way to alleviate writer’s block, it can take a lot of time. A set of 100 Hindu Squats can take three or four minutes. You’re probably breathing a lot harder than a run or 30 minutes on the treadmill and you can do them right at your desk.

Matt Furey – Carpal Tunnel Fix

Last year, hitting a punching bag was my version of stress relief. Unfortunately, it caused a little bit of elbow tendonitis, otherwise known as ‘tennis elbow’. Upon shaking the hand of a 110-lb graphic designer and feeling pain, I knew it was time to seek some help but did not feel like dealing with multiple trips to physical therapy, co-pays, deductibles and all that. I ordered Matt Furey’s Carpal Tunnel Fix program. Within a few days, the pain had subsided dramatically. Within a week, it was gone.

IrfanView

If something works for me, I stick with it. That’s why I kept the same printer-scanner-copier for the past nine years. It worked fine and I saw no reason to switch. Well, almost no reason. When I bought the new computer with Vista, the photo editing software that came with the printer was not working well. Or, at all. That’s when I discovered IrfanView. It enabled me to edit size, crop, change resolution and a bunch of other stuff. And it was free. ’nuff said.

Paint

Not the kind you put on walls. The Microsoft software that’s part of the Accessories suite. Usually thought of as kind of a throwaway/add-on, it has actually come in quite handy in my attempt to save my printer. In fact, it’s the program I use to scan documents. It sure beats buying a new printer.

That’s what worked for me last year. Stay tuned for next month’s Changing Lanes, which should appear before February 31.

December 11, 2011 by admin

I did it last week. Twice. Did you?

That’s really not bragging. It’s what every business, large or small should be doing once or twice a week at a minimum.

The “it” referred to here is adding new content to your website (let’s keep it out of the gutter, people).

When it comes to our websites, the fundamental complaint business owners have is not ranking high enough in the search engines. While
there’s the entire science of having the right keyword or keyword phrases, adding new content on on a fairly regular basis remains a critical part of higher rankings. Yet how many actually do it–add new content–each week?

Search engines only see words. Once a site has been indexed, it receives its ranking. If other website owners–new and those with existing sites–add new content with those same keywords, they can leave you in the dust.

That’s why having a blog that’s built into your website–not on separate blog sites–is critical to sustaining your search engine ranking. By simply posting a blog entry with your select choice of keywords, you are sending a message to the search engine spiders to “reindex me” with that new content. That helps keep your site from going to the bottom of the list.

So, how do you manage to do it at least once a week (shame on you if you haven’t caught on by now)? Here are some easy ways to consistently have fresh content:

Hire a freelance article/blog writer like yours truly to draft a month’s worth of blogs.
Make it a priority for you or a dedicated member of your staff to add content at least once a week.
Recruit guest bloggers. Invite non-competitors who have a similar target audience contribute a blog to run on your site. You can return the favor by writing one for theirs. If you work this right, you can be writing one blog a month but have new content every week and reach additional audiences.
Reference articles and link to them. That’s not advocating publishing an article verbatim on your blog. But a paragraph describing the article and then linking to it is fine.

Companies spend thousands of dollars in establishing a web presence. Yet it’s amazing how many forget to put that same effort on an
ongoing basis by updating the content to ensure the success of the site. By “doing it” once a week (or more), you can keep your website current and virile.