Laura’s Blog

8 Tips to Writing Great Content for Your Readers

By Matt Boyd
Guest Contributor

I’m not your typical writer. I’ve never been classically trained in language arts so needless to say, writing has not always been (and still isn’t) second nature to me. There’s a constant balance of writing well and creating content people will enjoy. Finding that balance is often difficult.

Recently, I’ve immersed myself in a whirlwind of blog articles with the sole purpose of studying successful writing styles. It’s always interesting to see which posts are successful by reading how users respond in the comments. Over my time as a studier of blog articles, I’ve learned some simple tips that have helped me create content people respond to and enjoy.

Three Powerful Storytelling Methods to Improve Your Writing or Speaking

By Dennis Brooke
Guest Contributor

I was shocked to read about an archeological expedition that made an amazing discovery in a cave near the Sea of Galilee. They claimed to have uncovered evidence that Jesus had used charts written on large sheets of papyrus with elaborately colored pie charts. On these first-century graphics his disciples illustrated such concepts such as the relative importance of God’s love versus obeying the law.

Of course, I’m kidding. Jesus knew that the way to reach the hearts of those he created in his image was through stories. Even if his apostles had hauled around papyrus flip charts with bullet points and graphics they didn’t survive—but the teachings of Christ have lived on through memorable stories.

How to Create a Custom Subject Line for Your Blog’s Feedburner E-Mail Updates

One of the best ways to build a loyal readership for your blog is to encourage visitors to subscribe via e-mail or RSS feed.

Many bloggers use Feedburner (owned by Google) to manage their blog’s feed. By default, people who subscribe to Feedburner blog updates via e-mail will receive a generic e-mail whose Subject line reads something like: Blogging Bistro – Latest Updates.

But did you know you can customize the Subject Line so it displays the title of your latest blog post? This illustrated tutorial explains how to do it, in 6 simple steps.

5 Surprising Tax Deductions for Bloggers

This is a guest post by Evan Fischer. If you would like to submit a guest article, please check out our guest post guidelines.

Working bloggers tend to fall into one of just a few categories.

• There are those who started a blog for fun as a way to explore and share their passion for a topic, only to discover that blogs can be monetized (a proposition which quickly led them to download AdSense and start the money-making process).

• And there are bloggers that started as writers and ended up getting hired on by a company to pen their on-site blog.

• Finally, there are freelance writers who peddle their wares to a variety of blogs, writing on a diverse array of topics.
[ Read more ]

Panhandler Marketing: Six Things Hobos Get Very Right

“Hey Lady, can you spare a dollar? I need to feed my kids.” In my town, panhandlers have become fixtures. I’m not a huge fan of their blight to small business who spend precious time shooing them away. Regardless, whether you deem them a nuisance or not, it seems they’ve landed on some marketing genius through real […]

Should You Buy .xxx Domain Names to Protect Yourself? .. and more social media tidbits

Interesting news and helpful tips about social media. Click the headline to read the full article. Should you purchase .xxx domain extensions to protect yourself? Businesses and colleges are rushing to prevent their names from falling into the hands of the pornography industry by buying up the new “.xxx” website extension. [The Seattle Times] The […]

Blog Headline Writing Techniques: 4 Lessons Learned from ‘The Costco Connection’

Even the Big Guys struggle to write enticing headlines. The cover story of July’s issue of The Costco Connection focuses on “unconventional” Costco members. In his letter from the editor, David W. Fuller writes: “…We tried to boil down to a few words the concept of our cover story. In a full sentence, here is […]

Want to Win ‘Launch’? Help Me Come Up With a Creative Giveaway Contest

I have been selected as one of 50 bloggers worldwide to review Michael A. Stelzner’s upcoming book, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition. Part of my assignment is to think of a way to “creatively give away a copy” of the book to one of my followers. I thought I’d have […]

An Outside-the-Box Method of Brainstorming Ideas for Blog Posts

Here’s a creative writing exercise that may spark ideas for future blog posts. Combine two movies you’d never associate with one another into one new blockbuster. Examples: Iron Music Man A combo of The Music Man (1962) and Iron Man (2008) A billionaire genius, Professor Harold Stark, invents an indestructible suit of armor made from […]

Repurposing Blog Posts Reaps Dividends

I have Google Alerts set up for my name and my business name (you should, too, if you don’t already). Whenever something is published online that includes the words, “Laura Christianson” or “Blogging Bistro,” I receive an e-mail with a link to the article. I received an alert that a monthly column I wrote for […]