10 Instant Blog Post Templates to Help You Write Articles in 30 Minutes or Less

I am a natural born writer, so writing has always come easy to me. But, when I had to start writing articles everyday for my blog, for my newsletter and for article submission – I quickly ran out of article topics.

Then one day as I was reviewing all of my articles, I realized that there was a structure and a formula behind each article I wrote. By recognizing these formulas I’m able to write an unlimited amount of articles – and write them in record time. And, If you want to overcome writer’s block and start writing articles faster, then you want to model proven article writing formats.

Here Are 10 Different Blog Post Templates That Will Help You Overcome Writer’s Block So You Can Write Articles Faster…

1. Myth Buster Article Template — With this template, you crush your prospects’ preconceived thoughts and notions about a subject. Take 3 myths people have about your industry. Explain to people why it’s a myth. And, then show them what can happen if they clear this myth from their mind.

2. Top 10 Article Template – Have you ever seen a Jay Leno, David Letterman or any other late night television show that doesn’t have a “Top 10″ segment? Well, neither have I! It’s because people love top 10 lists. So give readers and prospects what they want.

3. How-To Article Template – It’s no secret that “how-to” articles and blog posts are some of the most sought after, linked to and bookmarked content online. People want useful information and they’ll reward you by promoting it to others when you provide it. It’s also one of the easiest articles to write.

4. Step-by-Step Article Template – If you think writing a how-to article is easy especially if you’re using article templates, then you’ll think the step-by-step article template is a cinch. In how-to articles I start off with the problem or pain that my prospects are experiencing. Then I give them a solution and end with the results. In a step-by-step article, I like to sell the dream. I want to instantly connect with my prospects’ desires, wishes and needs. So, I explain the results up front that can happen if you follow my advice that I give in the article.

5. Quiz Article Template – Why do you think magazines publish quizzes all the time? Why do you think the quizzes you find on Facebook are so popular? It’s because people love taking quizzes, unless it’s a pop quiz in school. So, why not use a quiz format for your articles that will enable you to do a soft, pre-sell for your products and services. When readers answer “NO” to your questions, you’re implanting thoughts of “Maybe, we should be doing this.”

6. 3 Mistakes Article Template – When you mention mistakes within your title and throughout your article, you will automatically grab attention. People will think in their minds, “Am I doing this right? I better find out!”

7. The Why Article Template – How-to articles are great. And, as I said before, it’s the most popular article template. But sometimes, when you give too much of the “HOW,” you give prospects no reason to go to your website for more information. So, why not write an article that focuses on the “WHY” and give prospects a reason to visit your website and join your list.

8. Differentiate Yourself Article Template – I created an article entitled “How to Choose an Article Submission Service.” Within this article, I created 10 questions that prospects should ask. Now these questions were designed to show everything that my service includes that no one else offers. It educated prospects and at the same time, it pre-sold my article submission services.

9. Failure to Success Article Template – Did you ever notice how speakers (especially those who sell from the stage) would always tell you about their hardships? Why do speakers do this? Because we want you to connect with us. We want to show you that if we can achieve success, so can you. By opening up and revealing your failures or your scars, you add realness to your written words. People will look up to you and they will want your guidance.

10. What I Learned From Article Template — Through my years as the article marketing expert, I’ve learned that I can connect almost anything – no matter how unrelated it may seem – to various secrets that I teach my clients, subscribers and readers. For example, I’ve written articles such as “7 Article Marketing Lessons I Learned From Being a Martial Arts Champion,” 3 Lessons I Learned From the Mother of a Fearless PR LEADER,” and “5 Relationship Building Lessons I Learned From My Parents.”

Guest Author: Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners, authors, entrepreneurs and speakers who want more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, you can get 3 of his favorite his instant article writing templates that will help you overcome writer’s block and write your articles in 30 minutes or less. Get your free article templates now: http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com

Case Study: Mompreneur Grows Business by Using Twitter to Build Relationships

“Social networking is still a luxury, and I don’t have time to use it for my business.” Does this sound familiar? This is the most common excuse I receive from entrepreneurs and clients. So, since we all have the same amount of hours in a day, how does Dawn Papandrea-Khan, a mompreneur of four kids under the age of six manage to run three businesses and make time to use social networking to grow her business?

I met Dawn on Twitter last year and hired her for a few graphic design projects. Not only was I tremendously impressed by her work, but also by her dedication to make social networking work for her business. A couple of months ago, Dawn mentioned to me that 90 percent of her clients come from Twitter. So, I invited Dawn to share her story with my blog readers.

Let’s listen to what she has to say in this 20-minute interview:

To view Dawn’s work, you can visit her websites below:

DPK Graphic Design – http://DPK-GraphicDesign.com

DPK Virtual Assistant Services – http://DPK-VirtualAssistant.com

Surfaces with Paint (NY Based Decorative Painting Biz) – http://SurfaceswithPaint.com

Painter Mommy (My Everything Blog) – http://PainterMommy.com

Here is also my blog post that Dawn mentions:  Top 50 Social Media Mistakes Made by Small Businesses

I will be posting more case study interviews like this on a regular basis. If you are using social media successfully in your business and would like to be interviewed, please reach out to me. I love hearing social media success stories!

Did this help you to see how entrepreneurs are using social networking to grow their business?  What was your takeaway from the interview?

3 Valuable Tips for the Yahoo! and Bing Search Transition

After a partnership agreement was signed exactly one year ago, Yahoo! has finally started testing organic and paid listings from Microsoft Bing this week. Yahoo! states if all goes as planned, users should expect Yahoo!’s organic search results to be powered by Bing around August/September.

The organic search transition will happen automatically. However, if you perform SEO on your site and ranking high in these search engines is important to you, I recommend keeping a close eye on any updates and tips from both Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Yahoo has already provided its users with three valuable tips:

1. Compare your organic search rankings on Yahoo! Search and Bing for the keywords that work best for you.
2. Decide if you’d like to modify your paid search campaigns to compensate for any changes in organic referrals that you anticipate.
3. Review the Bing webmaster tools and optimize your website for the Microsoft platform crawler, as Bing listings will be displayed for approximately 30% of search queries after this change, according to comScore.

I also found the Yahoo! FAQ page to be extremely helpful in answering some the questions I had.

Here’s to a smooth transition!

An Infograph – 20 Fascinating Facts About YouTube

Infograph by GO-Gulf.com – Dubai Web Design Company

Why Audience Engagement Matters with Social Media

Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned social media pro, it’s important to stay connected to your audience. It’s easy to forget the purpose of being social if you’re too consumed with promoting yourself. Every now and then, we all need a reminder about how important it is to provide value and to be genuine in our attempts at audience engagement. Don’t forget that social media is here to stay!

Studies on Social Media Usage

A recent study shows that Generation Y, or Millennials, will continue to use social networking as they age. Contrary to what few believe, social media and sharing is not just a fad – it’s here to stay. 67% of technology experts questioned in the study agree that Millennials will not grow out of sharing information about themselves on social networks. This should come as no surprise as social media is increasingly become an important part of our lives. Many people are already willing to admit the check Twitter or Facebook before their email and there are studies to show that. If you’re an internet marketer, there is no way to success if you ignore these social media channels.

Storytelling and Engagement

In order to engage your customers, sharing on social media sites should consist of more than just linking to pieces of information about yourself. Nowadays, it’s even easier for people to ignore a sales pitch. They want to see your real personality and understand how you can help them. Storytelling as it relates to social media means relating a topic, story, or opinion to your customers. If you’re blogging about a topic, relate it to yourself or the average person. This makes it more personable and easier to relate to. You want to give them a reason to care or form an opinion. Telling an interesting story will encourage your audience to post question, comments and even look to you as a resource.

Share Your Voice

Establishing an online presence for your business means more than just setting up the accounts. Consistency counts! This can be the hardest aspects for most businesses and individuals. Being online means that you are connected 24/7 and you may feel that you’re running out of things to say. The worst thing you could do is broadcast yourself continuously. Instead, opt for variety of topics to share. Look for what your customers are interested in and if you’re not sure, research or ask. Social networks are a place where you can make a difference by providing value. Offering free resources and expert advice is always useful. As you’re active, remember to also be genuine. Show your personality and put effort into your audience outreach. They’ll appreciate a genuine source of information.

Is there anything you would like to share about your own personal experiences with audience engagement through social media?

Guest Author: Lynna Pham is project coordinator at Emarketed, a Los Angeles web design and web copywriting firm.

Brand-What the Heck is That?

Many people use the word brand quite loosely. So let’s define what a brand is? For many people, a brand is just a logo with a unique identity and nothing else.

So let’s define what exactly a brand is and how we can use it to position ourselves in this crowded marketplace.

I was once talking to a brand expert and she said “Several decades ago, perhaps even centuries ago, if people wanted to buy flowers, they would just buy it from a vendor on the street. People were mostly commodity shoppers.”

Today, the market place is so crowded that almost everybody sells a similar commodity. How do you differentiate one from the other? It could be the exact same product but they could differ in quality and performance. So, now enter brands.

A brand to me is a reputation and also a personality. People buy based on reputation. If two people went to raise capital in the market one was Warren Buffet and the other was XYZ, most people would invest in Warren Buffet because Warren has built a reputation of being a wise businessman with a great track record in building multi-billion dollar companies. And, nobody has any idea who XYZ is. Read more

4 Steps to Strengthen Your Brand with Social Media

Social media is a very powerful tool for allowing businesses to efficiently and economically develop a strong brand presence in the marketplace. This is true not just when it applies to brand outreach, but also brand development at it’s core.

At Flying Pig Communications, we work with a lot of start-ups and small businesses that are at the forefront of establishing who they are, in the mind of their consumer. These businesses have found amazing success in developing that core brand foundation by relying on social media as their platform.

Unfortunately social media is so new and omnipresent, it can seem overwhelming. This prevents many business owners from taking advantage of the opportunities it presents them. Never fear…you started a business, you can’t be a coward…here is an easy four step protocol to help any business owner develop a successful social media branding program:

1) Know Who You Are

Before embarking on any marketing campaign, but especially a social media one, which operates on such a personal, conversational level, a business must establish a clear vision of the following cornerstones of brand development:

-What is the goal of your business/service/product? This should have nothing to do with sales or your personal profit/success. This should have everything to do with how your business can make your customer’s life better. Why in the world, with all the many products and services out there, would your customer benefit by choosing you?

-What makes you unique? Why would your customer choose you over the 15 zillion other ‘you’s’ on the market?

-What personality do you want to convey? Make your business human. People like working with other people, not other things…and social media gives you the power to develop a voice, literally! Develop a personality for your business and keep it consistent in everything you do. It could be your personality, it could be one you make up….have fun and always consider what will best appeal/resonate with your target audience.

Just like life, you need to know who you are before you can attract others. Building a brand is more about a snappy logo or catchy slogan. Building a brand is about telling your customer a story about who you are, what you believe in and why they should trust you.

2) Develop Your Strategy

Once you feel firm in your answers above, moving on to the actual social media program is easy. Only two questions remain;

-What social media channels will best help you express who you are.

-How will you keep it consistent.

Don’t try to tackle the whole social media sphere in one swoop, more isn’t better, better is better! Choose your poison (but make it strong).

Choose the social media mediums that will best let you both target your ideal customer and express your brand. Know your limits, a good marketing campaign is the one that is properly executed, not the one that sounds good on paper.

3) Prepare for the consequences

Be aware of the power of social media, both for good and evil. It can be a double edged sword, and once you commit to a plan you need to make sure you maintain consistent and communicative with your audience.

4) Enjoy it

Most of all, have fun! Imagine social media as a web 2.0 way of shaking hands and kissing babies. Talk to your customer, enjoy them…serving their needs is the reason you went into business in the first place!

Guest Author: Laura Petrolino is Founder and CEO of Flying Pig Communications. A full service Marketing, Communications and Business Consultancy Firm that specializes in working with start -ups, small businesses and non-profits.

25 Monitoring Tools That Will Not Cost You a Penny

Your brand, industry, and competitors are being discussed online whether you use social media or not. Actively monitoring what people are saying about you, your brand, your industry, and your competitors has many benefits, including protecting your brand reputation, discovering what customers want and need, learning of new opportunities, staying on top of competition, avoiding disasters, and measuring ROI.

Below are 25 monitoring tools that won’t cost you anything to use, and will help you gain a wealth of knowledge about your brand, influencers, prospects, customers, competitors, and much more.

1. Backtype – Get alerts of where your competitors are promoting their website and who they are interacting with.
2. Bit.ly – Shorten and track how many clicked on and retweeted your links.
3. BlogPulse – Get data from blogs, news posts and other online content that include you or your competitors in the conversation.
4. BoardTracker – Search forums and discussion boards or set up alerts that will tell you when and how often people mention a particular search term.
5. DomainTools – Get a report on a website’s domain information.
6. Google Alerts – Set up email alerts of target keywords or phrases that are important to you, your brand, and industry.
7. Google Analytics – See where your website traffic is coming from, what pages are being visited, what keywords are being used to find you, etc.
8. Google Video – Find videos on a specific topic, competitor videos, etc.
9. Jodange – Track consumer sentiment about your brand or product across the Web.
10. Klout – Measure who a person influences and the specific topics they are most influential on.
11. Knowem – Check and reserve your brand, product, personal name or username on social media websites.
12. Monitter – Find out what people are saying in real-time on Twitter.
13. Oodle – Discover competitors’ plans for the future by monitoring the types of jobs they post online.
14. Quarkbase – See traffic data, similar sites, social comments, description, social popularity about websites.
15. SEO for Firefox – Find out a site’s PageRank, age, number of links at a certain domain/page, if it’s listed in certain directories etc.
16. SEOPro Link Checker – Find out which sites link back to your website as well as your competitors’ sites.
17. SocialMention – Check and get alerts on what people are saying about a term across different blogs and social outlets.
18. Technorati – Find industry bloggers, influencers, and monitor who mentions you or your competitors in the blogosphere.
19. Trendrr – Find out how your brand or product is trending in real time compared to others.
20. Tweetburner – Shorten and track URLs on Twitter and Friendfeed.
21. Twendz – Track conversation and user sentiment on Twitter in real-time.
22. Twinfluence – Measure the combined influence of tweeps and their followers.
23. Twitter Search – Using keywords and phrases, search what people have discussed on Twitter.
24. Xinu – Find out how well your site is doing in popular search engines, social bookmarking and other site statistics
25. Yahoo Site Explorer – Discover who is linking to you and your competitors.

Of course, it does not stop with these. There are hundreds of tools out there! In another blog post, I will discuss the paid monitoring tools.

What tools do you use? Which free tools did I miss?

Poll: How would you describe your knowledge of the Social Web as a whole?

What other polls would you like to see on this site?  Please feel free to suggest new poll questions in the comments below.

Who’s Blogging What: The 2010 Facebook Page Marketing Guide

A while back, I ran a  Facebook poll on my blog asking readers if they were getting business from their Facebook pages — 44% said “No,” 33% said “Yes,” 14% said “They didn’t know” if they were getting business and 9% said they were not using it to get business.

If you are not getting the business results you want out of Facebook, then it is time to re-evaluate your micro-strategy (you have one, right?), and if you don’t know if you are getting results, then you are probably not measuring your efforts.

My plan was to write a blog post in response to the poll; however, Jeff Ente from “Who’s Blogging What” contacted me to tell me he is using one of my quotes for a new guide Facebook guide.

The timing was perfect and thought it was an excellent eBook to share with my blog readers who are still struggling with how to use Facebook for business.  This 30-page complimentary guide on how to create, manage, and grow your Facebook pages was prepared by a team of professional observers, bloggers, consultants and users of Facebook business pages.

Here is sneak peak at the table of contents:

Creating a Facebook page

Examples of effective pages

Six Ways To Get Found On Facebook

Getting People To ‘Like’ Your Facebook Page

Developing Content/Inbound Marketing For Facebook

Leveraging Facebook for Ecommerce

Facebook’s potential to make sales become viral

Analyzing Facebook Traffic

Newsfeed: Parting thoughts on Facebook from a group of social media

observers, authors and bloggers

The eBook can be downloaded on the HubSpot website.  BTW, my quote is on page 27 of the guide.

Enjoy and hope it helps a lot of you out! Don’t forget to comment below and let me know what you thought of it.

Marketing to Your Customers, Not Your Ego

Today, I am going to discuss something that I’m sure everyone has seen at least once or twice, and I would hasten to add that probably the majority of marketers have been guilty of it at least in some small way (I’m certainly no exception).

Ego-centric Marketing

It’s not usually done on purpose, but I think businesses sometimes are guilty of forgetting what their marketing is really about, and who it is for…

So here it is then: Marketing is for the sole benefit of your customers. It is about pleasing them, helping them, answering their questions. What it is not, is a chance to tell them everything that you like about your business.

Avoiding Vanity

We’ve all seen examples of this, the Internet is full of it. Corporate websites often looking smashing, but when you land on a home page that reads like a business plan, it’s hard to be enthusiastic about staying to explore that website isn’t it?

Sentences like “We use innovative [jargon] to excel at [jargon] and provide a more [jargon] service for our key customer groups.” belong in your marketing strategy, or maybe on an about us page. Read more

3 Undeniable Ways to Turn Competitors into Enemies on Social Media Sites

Have you heard the old saying:  “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”  This was said by Sun-tzu , Chinese general and military strategist.  This proverb has been applied in business as well, but it seems that many people using social media for business are not following this motto.

Here are three undeniable ways to turn competitors into enemies on social media sites:

Imitating

Being a copy-cat is the worst thing you can do for your business.  Instead of boosting business, you end up making enemies.  As I mentioned in my “3 Major Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Competitors on Social Networking Sites,” you should definitely observe what your competition does online so you leverage some opportunities, not stalk them and imitate their every social media tactic and idea.  Social media copy-cats do not succeed because they lack authenticity, uniqueness, and creativity. Read more

3 Major Reasons You Shouldn’t Ignore Competitors on Social Networking Sites

Last month, I ran a poll asking what everyone thought about befriending competitors on social networking sites.  Despite the fact that many businesses fear competitors or malicious copy-cats who watch their every move online, 66% said “Yes,” 26% said “It Depends,” and only 8% said “No” to befriending competitors on social networks.

If you are not engaging with competitors online you are missing the real point of social media and its many benefits.  You should be embracing the opportunity to converse and establish relationships with competitors who could help leverage your success online.

Below are three major reasons you shouldn’t ignore competitors on social networking sites:

Market Research

Monitoring what your competitors are doing online will help you figure out their strengths and weaknesses as well as identify any opportunities and threats.  What better way to discover what they excel at and what holes they have in their strategy than befriending them on social networks. Read more

7 Mistakes That Can Kill Your Social Media Marketing

Mirna wrote a list of 50 social media mistakes, so I thought it would be a good idea to elaborate on some of them in this guest post.

Every nine out of ten online buyers visit social media websites before buying anything and around 50% of them take decisions under the influence of information they get from these social media websites. In a current market scenario where social media websites are influencing the 50% purchase decisions it has become impossible for business owners to ignore the power of social media.

Although, building your business presence on social media is not a rocket science but still here are seven mistakes which can turn your entire social media marketing efforts in to disaster if not taken care of.

1) Promoting without a plan – Time and again we see business owners who have no idea of what they to want to achieve from these social media websites. They join them just without a plan which makes their social media campaign like fishing in dark.  Like any other marketing, you must have an action plan for your social media efforts too which will contain the objectives you want to accomplish, the resources and time you have.

2) Having Incomplete Profiles – Nothing will frustrate your target audience more than your incomplete profile. Leaving your profile partly filled not only creates communication problem between you and your target audience but also makes you look unprofessional. Make sure that your profile is complete – have your image and correct contact information. Read more

How to Find the Best Web Hosting Service

There are a number of things you should look at when selecting the best web hosting service for your website.  How much you can store and how much can be transferred to visitors are only the beginning.  There is a lot more to think about than that, especially since so many web hosts now offer unlimited storage and bandwidth.

One of the more obvious things to look at is price.  You need to find something that you can afford, but you should always keep in mind that cheaper hosting is often worse hosting.  Lower cost could mean a reduction in features, customer support, storage, bandwidth, number of allowed domains, and more.  If you don’t need the features that were removed to reduce the price, then the reduced price is better for you.  Otherwise, consider spending more to get what you need in a web host. Read more

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