How I Made an Extra $1k Last Month (and Left $5k on the Table)

I just finished running my very first e-course, Content Intelligence Agency, which helped the students generate six-months worth of blog post ideas and put them into an editorial calendar, and it went so well!  Better than I could have ever hoped, really.

Oh, sure: there were a few hiccoughs here and there, mostly to do with technology (major takeaway: click EVERY LINK before launch!), but I think people really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.

The content was great. I really believe I delivered a good value for …

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How to Get 67% More Leads

Let’s crunch some numbers:

Brands that create 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month. (Source)
B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not blog.

I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but blogging is the best way to attract new visitors to your website, and should be the nexus of your social media strategy.  Without great content, how can you have great social media? What are you going to be tweeting or Facebooking that people …

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The 5 Ws of Creating Your Blog Editorial Calendar

I never went to journalism school. I never really wanted to be a journalist, I just liked writing and telling stories.  Lucky for me, a series of serendipitous circumstances led me to a pretty illustrious career as an award-winning journalist and, more importantly, led me to a pretty amazing editor.  I knew how to write; she taught me how to be a journalist.

One of the basic lessons she taught me was to always ask the five Ws: who, what, when, where, why, and how. That’s like Journalism 101 for …

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Case Study: How to Tell Stories that Sell

“Facts tell; stories sell.”  That’s from Marie Forleo, and she is SO right.  Storytelling is the essence of all good writing, whether writing a novel or a business blog—and whether you’re selling widgets or doing deep, emotional personal coaching work.

But sometimes, figuring out which stories to tell can be challenging—especially if you’re not doing deep, emotional personal coaching-type work.  How does a personal story relate to selling widgets, or accounting software, or interior decorating, as someone recently asked me:

I do interior design and home organizing … I don’t really understand what type …

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