Blogs

From a Holistic Business to a Whole Life

I’ve seen it over and over again…once you find your core values, the worldview that drives you, your life begins opening in new directions to reflect it. In 2004, Your Words’

Six Questions to Ask Before You Work With a Ghost/Guest Blogger

You see it again and again in marketing circles: Content is King! Content drives traffic! Content draws visitors! And it’s true – it does. A website with high-quality, targeted, relevant

The Power of Vulnerability

So very often I see clients with wonderful visions for their business, missions that can inspire great change in their clients and communities….and a choking fear of stepping out in

Greenwash or No? How Asking the Hard Questions Honed My Niche

Can you recognize greenwash in the making…and when you do, what do you do about it? If you’re a freelance marketing green businesses to well-meaning consumers who are vulnerable to

How Ghost-Blogging Can Refine Your Message

Reading some social-marketing blogs, you’d think that hiring a ghost-blogger is rather like hiring a writer for your master’s thesis. Immoral, unethical, deceptive, and…well, you just don’t do it! Rather

Why Design Is Only One Part of Your Website’s Success

There’s a common myth afoot…a myth that has deeply embedded itself in the small business consciousness. It’s a seductively deceptive myth that appears to save you money, but is actually

The Secret “Extra” Service
You Didn’t Know YWW Offers

I don’t normally explore new career paths because of a wrong-number voicemail, but this one shocked me into asking “Why not?” It was a man’s voice, clipped and businesslike, saying,

When Your 1-Page Site Isn’t Enough

Perhaps, once upon a time, your bare-bones-basic one-page site was a perfectly fine way to represent your company on the Internet. But with just about everybody taking their business online,

Creating a Site That Showcases You

For many small businesses, a more-or-less generic site structure works just fine. Your basic home page, an About Us profile, some pages on Services and/or Products, a number of Testimonials,

Scrap It and Start Over!
(what not to do with your creaky website)

So you’ve had your website up for awhile, and let’s face it, it’s showing its age. Maybe you’ve had some major changes in your life and mission…maybe you’ve moved to

What’s With These Bizarre Blog Comments?

If you’ve run a blog for any length of time, you’ve probably had at least one of those Twilight Zone experiences: receiving comments with little or relation to the topic

Answering the Question Your Visitors Will Never Speak
(but they’re always asking)

My trial by fire as a writer came from a high-wired Technical Communications professor…a moonlighting novelist who loved coffee and hated Latinate -ize and -ization suffixes with equal passion. With our

Weaving the Magical Elements of a Powerful Web Presence

Whether you’re reworking your website or building a new site from scratch, you can be sure of one thing: your audience is going to come in asking – “So what?

Do You Get a Headache Just Thinking About Revising Your Website?

I’m really beginning to wonder if it’s in the water. Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard the questions from one business owner after another: I really need a website

Making Your First Meetings Memorable: Crafting a Powerful Elevator Speech

You know the “Oh, how…er…interesting” moment. It happens when someone at a networking mixer introduces himself saying something like this: “I’m John Doe, and I’m lead widget wizard with United

If You Want People Talking About Your Business – Get Out There And Speak!

So you’re a loyal regular at all the networking mixers and business builder groups…you’ve handed out your cards at more events than you can count..but have you stood at

Is Your Website a Brochure in Disguise?

How many times have new clients asked to speak to me about setting up their new website, and then asked, “Can’t you just take the content from our brochure and

Easy Steps to Boost Your Site’s Credibility, Rankings & Traffic

Too many times, I have heard clients complaining, “I’ve set up my website – but I don’t think anyone’s visiting it!” And they begin sharing the tricks they’ve tried to

Networking by the (New) Law of the Jungle

Dog eat dog. Survival of the fittest. That’s (theoretically) been the rule of the free market system…that competition improves the quality of everyone’s product, and only the strongest survive. But

Four Letters Spell Search Engine Love for Your Site

When you’re just beginning to set up your business website, the screen can gape as blank as your mind. How can you communicate your vision and mission, your products and

So What, Exactly, Is……..?
Embodying Your Brand

When you choose an identifier for your business, you’re immediately faced with the question of defining it for your clients…and for yourself. What does XYZ mean, and who are you

Does Your Site Serve Your Visitors’ Needs?
Check These Seven Telltale Signs

When you’re setting up your website, it’s the most natural thing in the world to think it’s about your business – your mission, products and services, history, success stories, etc.,

Are You Treating Your Audience Like a Faceless Mob?

I can’t count the number of clients who’ve answered my question “Who is your audience?” with “Everyone! – Anyone who’s ever needed (fill in the product or service).” That kind

Banish the Terror of the Blank Screen

You held out as long as you could. “I don’t want to be a blogger,” you said. “I don’t see the value to my business, and besides, what would I

You Work Hard for Your Site Visitors…
Now What Do You Do to Keep Them?

Whether you’re running a brick-and-mortar shop, a sleek office in an industrial park, or a website, you have one goal in running your business: GET TRAFFIC!! It doesn’t matter whether

How Do You Market When the Product is You?

My 22-year-old son is graduating from college as a Mechanical Engineering major this May, into one of the wickedest job markets in the history of the country. He looked over

But Does It Sound Right?
Connect to Your Audience with Authentic Passion

Back in 6th grade English class, our teacher was Mrs. C…a small round lady with a 100-megawatt personality and an utter dedication to the English language and its rules. She

Will You Be Heard? Four Tell-Tale Signs of a Confusing Message

If you’re like me, you probably grit your teeth and groan inwardly when you hear a barrage of corporate-speak, loaded with cliches like “leveraging the synergy to take it to

Can You Digg It? Why Should You?

With all the attention that’s paid to increasing traffic to your website or blog, don’t forget the impact that social-bookmarking services like Digg, Technorati, Yahoo Buzz, and others can have

Selling High-Tech Products to Non-Technical Buyers

Penny-pinchers. Tightwads.Cost-cutters. Not very attractive descriptions, are they? Rather reminiscent of Scrooge in an overcoat and muffler, counting up his fortune by candlelight, perhaps? But these words take

Greening in Grim Times

With the economy in upheaval, Congress visioning and re-visioning industry bailouts and abandoning clean-energy tax credits, the health care debate tug-of-warring this way and that, and the environment under continuing

Attract Local Customers with an Online/Real-Time Strategy

On eBay, your customers can “shop victoriously.” On Amazon, Overstock, and the big-box e-commerce sites they can get deep discounts, wide selection, and never-leave-the-sofa gratification. So how can you motivate

The One Budget Item You Can’t Afford to Cut

For those of us whose parents survived the Great Depression, the recent economic downturn may have stirred deep-rooted reflexes to scrimp and save: cut expenses to the barest minimum, DIY

Make Your Website a Hard-Working Online Revenue Source

I can’t count the times a prospect has told me – “We’re planning to redo our website, and we want somebody who can actually write to do the content for

ISO Green Business Teammates to Join Me in a Summer Excursion to the Frontiers of Web 2.0!

This summer, like last, I’m going to be spending a portion of my days in an Aussie-tinged excursion to the far frontiers of Web 2.0 – the wildly fertile land

What’s Driving Consumers This Year?

If it seems to you that the social gaps are widening…between the health-conscious and the, well, not-so health conscious…between Americans pursuing luxury and those pursuing simplicity…between ultra-driven aficionados of caffeine

Tired of Forests Paying for Your Reading Habits? Here’s a Solution

As the holiday shopping season begins, I’m going to step away from the topic of green copywriting and Internet marketing for just a moment. You see, my friends and I

Do Your Clients Understand Your Green Business Language?

This is a little bit of a rant, I’m afraid…I just read an article in GreenBiz News about an EcoPinion survey that found “Consumers Don’t Understand Green Terms.” To quote

What is Social Networking, and Why Should I Care? (part 3 of 3)

So we’ve talked about how Web 2.0 social networking is similar to offline networking, and about all the many ways you can show up on social networks… Now – here’s

"What is Social Networking and Why Should I Care?" (part 1 of 3)

This is a question I’m hearing a lot these days…current clients are seeking new venues to promote their web presence, new clients are seeking a cost-effective way to promote their

What’s Different about Green Copywriting?

Ever since I decided to focus my copywriting work on the topic of my heart – sustainable business – I’ve felt as if I’ve been walking a path that’s barely

BLOGS