Word Constructions

Most people who start a blog would like to have some people read it And many would like more people to read their blog - whether it is to promote their business, share their passion or express their opinions and experiences, they want someone to read what they have written.

So how can you promote your blog, getting more readers?

I have found a few blog posts recently that cover parts of this topic so I thought I would share them before I gave any tips of my own…

How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Through Word of Mouth Marketing

Powering Up Your Blog With These 26 Power Lists/Rankings (the list is handy, but the site isn’t impressive with many faulty images, etc)

101 Internet Traffic Generation Strategies - Part 1 Not all the tips will be relevant to your blog, but you may get some ideas.

Aside from the content of the survey itself, it is very important that any surveys or feedback forms are well prepared in other ways.

I just answered a survey that included at least three of the following mistakes and it has left with me with the impression that those business owners don’t care about details or consistency - so why would I trust them with promoting my business (their apparent service)?

So before you make a survey available to your customers, check how it presents and do a test run to see it really does work - better yet, get someone else to do the test run for you.

1. Be careful of what you make a compulsory questions/answer. If a compulsory response isn’t included, the person can’t submit their survey and may get frustrated and move on which means you don’t get their feedback. And most people won’t tell you they had this problem, either.
   So if you do make a question compulsory to answer, ensure there is an answer for everyone so all can answer - even if one answer is “don’t know”, “prefer not to answer”, “none of the above” or similar.
   And if you give a range of answers including ‘other’, make sure that ‘other’ is an acceptable answer. I have done surveys where I can’t submit unless I choose a response instead of ‘other’ - forcing me to choose an inaccurate answer as well as my true comments.
2. Most small (and even larger) businesses use a third party to run surveys. This generally means the survey appears more professional and can be easier to use - for example, not many businesses can afford the programming to do an online survey each time. While this is a valid practice, minimise the third party as much as possible.
   For example, if you complete this business branding survey, which is run on a third party survey site, you will be directed to the host business’s website once you click on ’submit’. This way, the business itself is being promoted and gains more traffic from people doing the survey. The other option is to let people go to the third party’s homepage once the survey is complete.
3. Brand the survey as much as possible. If the survey is a serious part of your business, it should continue your brand. That means add a logo, use your corporate colours, use the same style of writing, use your corporate fonts and use relevant images as applicable. You may not be able to make it match your web template or change fonts, for instance, but brand it as much as possible.
4. Keep it as short as possible - you probably want responses from a range of people, not just the bored and those who love surveys, and busy people don’t have time for long surveys unless they see a potential benefit from it.
   Be careful with the number of questions - if one more question or comment will create a new page, review it. Someone scanning a survey will see there is another page and decide it is too long which would be a pity if the next page was only one question - or worse, if the next page is simply a “thanks for doing our survey” message.
5. Look at the presentation - is there too much text so it looks complicated or time consuming? Does it look professional or just thrown together? Is there a nice mix of multiple choice answers and written responses, or just written responses? Does it look easy to complete?

Once you are confident you have good questions and a well prepared survey/questionnaire, the next step is to announce and promote it appropriately. Remember that many people won’t fill in the survey just because you want them to - you have to give them a reason to want to do it themselves.

And then make sure you make use of your survey results!

Use your words wisely!

Here is a pair of words that sound exactly the same but have quite different meanings - yet I’m not sure any people realise there are two words instead of one with different uses.

discrete - distinct, separate, individual, referring to numbers
It was a series of discrete performances across the country.

discreet - tactful, subtle, unobtrusive
Her boss was very discreet about her illness.
{see how the t separates the es in discrete?}

Obviously, there are many reasons behind people starting up a business rather than being an employee. But a common reason, or support for another reason, is the desire for flexibility.

I have heard “I hate working 9 to 5 so I started my own business” or words to that affect a number of times. And yet those same people may well find that running a business requires more than 8 hours a day, 7 days a week to be a success.

Valerie Khoo not only discusses this issue but gives some good tips on how to plan flexibility into your businessin a blog post last month. I think her most important point is the planning - you need to know what flexibility you want (or need) and then plan the business around that.

For example, one flexibility I want is to be able to go on school excursions with my daughters, especially while they are young enough to be excited by my presence! Therefore, I do not claim to be available during all business hours and my regular clients know I sometimes work at nights or weekends instead of during traditional business hours. One client had a deadline for an article last week when I was at the zoo so we agreed he could call me at the zoo and I would talk him through any technical issues. Flexibility.

I would find it much harder to go on excursions if I had a traditional office where people were encouraged to drop in for meetings.

Sometimes a compromise will be necessary to achieve the desired flexibility. For example, to only work 3 days a week you may have to accept earning less than if you worked 5 days a week or accept having staff or outsourcing more.

If you run a business, from home or elsewhere, do you have the flexibility you expected when you started? Would you like more flexibility in your life to do things other than business?

I would suggest you plan your ideal week, business and personal combined, and see how far it is from reality then look for ways you can move closer to the ideal.

Use your time wisely!

Going on from my recent post about repeat messages in emails, where I mentioned owning up to a mistake rather than sending a corrected version as if nothing had happened, I thought I’d share this post I found with you.

Joan Pasay discusses getting a lot of emails with “Whoops!” in the subject line because people had discovered an error in the emails they had sent out. I agree with her suggestion of being upfront and ‘grown up’ in the subject line when you announce an error. As she says “I guess the lesson here is to just admit you made an error and not try to cover it up with a “Gee wilickers, I think I just might be a moron” type subject line. “”

Personally, I have never received an email with a whoops subject - have you? I’ve had emails announcing an error, but they mostly have been along the lines of “our may newsletter - with correction” which is perfectly acceptable. Although I always wonder if I should delete the original because I can’t be sure (without taking the time there and then to read the email) if the corrected version includes the entire message or just the correction.

So now am I wondering - what sorts of subjects have you seen from people who realise they made a msitake in an email already sent?

Use your words wisely!

There are pairs of words that are frequently misused. However much they sound the same, using the wrong word can totally change the meaning of your sentence.

And you can’t rely on your spell checker to find these errors for you.

A good, old fashioned dictionary is the best way to make sure you are using the correct word in any situation. If you don’t have a dictionary at home, and the old school one probably doesn’t count, I would strongly suggest you get one so you can avoid unnecessary errors in your writing.

As I still see many of these words used incorrectly, I am going to show the different meanings as a blog category - and I’ll post one every Monday.

Please let me know if there are any particular words you aren’t sure of and I’ll include them, too.

If you send out announcements or ads to a mailing list, be careful not to overdo it. I recently received two emails only days apart from the same person for the same ad, although she tried to make it look like two ads - it didn’t impress me as I wasn’t interested in it the first time!

Using a different example, the first message she sent was “Tash is presenting a workshop on clear communications in Mulgrave”; the second message was “Learn about clear communications in our workshop”

I think it is insulting to your readers to assume they can’t tell that this is the same ad in different words - and how embarrassing would it be for someone who tried enrolling in ‘both’ seminars?

If for some reason you are going to repeat an ad to your mailing list, then be honest about it and say so. Some possible introductions are:

• Apparently some people didn’t get this message so I am sending it again
• I had to send this again as the date has changed to …
• Apologies for sending this again, but I felt it was so important I didn’t want to risk you missing out
• I’m sorry - I sent this to you yesterday but I forgot to add the link so you could book!

However, make sure it is an honest reason you give and don’t do it regularly as it looses any credibility it may have had. I have received emails from people who used the ’sorry, wrong/forgotten link’ more than once in two months and it looked very tacky and led me straight to the unsubscribe button.

If you are sending an email about somethig with a specific date, such as a workshop, then you can send a reminder closer to the date - note, it should be a reminder not just the same message again. And again, don’t send lots of reminders as that is just as annoying as repeated ads and also makes it less likely that the reader will respond to any of them.

Use your words wisely!

P.S. I am actually giving a workshop on clear communications in Mulgrave on Monday, 26th May. If you can make it, please make sure you introduce yourself to me on the day. 

Did you know that you are allowed to say no sometimes? Even to new clients or a long standing client, it is acceptable for you to say no - politely of course!

It is a little silly, but I was reminded of this through the Rat in the Hat! Melissa Khalinsky often uses children’s TV shows to point out business lessons, and in one of her blog posts, she shows how Rat is quite the entrreperuner.

Melissa wrote “Don’t overextend yourself - this is something Rat does often in his quest to meet the needs of everyone on Cuddles Ave. Unfortunately Rat doesn’t know how to say no ” and I had to nod in agreement, both for Rat in a Hat (yes, I’ve watched him, too!) and for many business owners I know.

As a small business owner, it is hard to turn down a client - there’s that little fear that maybe this was the last work request you’d get for 6 months so how can you afford to not do this project? Or maybe it is a fear that saying no will make that person hate you and bad mouth you to other potential clients?

But let’s look at it the other way:

• if you take on too much work, you will end up doing inferior work for a number of clients, thereby damaging your good reputation
• if you continue doing too much, you will burn out and really not be able to earn anything for 6 months
• if one client has found you and asked for a quote, it is likely others can also find you next week and next month
• a well managed ‘no’ will leave the client feeling positive about you even if you couldn’t do their work - they may try you again another time, or at least tell others you acted professionally
• do you really think your clients have the time and inclination to bad mouth you just because you couldn’t work for them?

I will cover the various reasons for saying no, and how to say no nicely in the next few blog posts. But for now, just take on the belief that you can say no and the world (or your business!) won’t end!

A media release is generally an announcement of something you consider newsworthy enough the media may tell your story. So when do you tell the media?

There is no simple answer, but there are some guidelines depending on what type of release you are sending out.

If your release is announcing something that has happened (e.g. “we won an award”)

• send it out ASAP

If your release is about an upcoming event (e.g. “our school fete is on the 9th May”)

• don’t send it until you know all the important facts (especially dates, times and place, or the name, address and URL of a new business)
• send it early enough for the media to use it. For example, if the local paper is printed on Tuesday don’t send the release on the Tuesday afternoon immediately before the event. Note that some media outlets have a much longer lead time than others - some magazines need things months in advance. Likewise, consider their time requirements before sending it too early - a local paper or website doesn’t need to know about a small event 3 months in advance, they’ll just forget it if you tell them too soon!
• include a release date. That is, at the top of the media release, write “Not to be released until 1 June 2008″ or similar so the media know it is advance warning

In addition, if your release is about the launch of a new website

• don’t send the release until there is something on the website! Sending the media to  ‘coming soon’ page won’t impress them and it is less likely that they will publish your story. The site doesn’t have to be complete, but have a welcome page that introduces the business/site, some contact details and has a look that complements the final look - this is much more professional and enticing. If the site is near completion, you may even send the media a link that shows them what the site will look like even if it isn’t yet available at the final URL

If your release isn’t time critical, then you can send it at any time of course! But I would question its newsworthiness if it really has no time frame attached..

The timing doesn’t have to be hard - just use a little common sense really.

Happy writing!

Anybody reading my blog or newsletter knows that I am passionate about helping people write clearly for their business purposes. Which I assume is why the Business Mums Network has invited me to speak at their next morning tea workshop.

The details are as follows:

Confident Communications

Monday, 26 May 2008 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM

Monash Incubator Centre, 5a Hartnett Close, Mulgrave

To register phone 03 9018 8947 or email events@businessmums.com

Click here to find out more.