Often lost in all the talk about creating content in the world of social media is blogging. Specifically, guest blogging. Sure, we have all heard about how wonderful Twitter is, and how viral success on YouTube and Facebook can propel you and your business to greater heights. But guest blogging is right up there, too, as one of the best ways to enhance your presence on the Web. So guest blogging is basically writing content for a blog of which you are not the author. Usually you’d be invited by the owner of a blog to write content for him or her. Or it may come to happen that you know a blogger – a friend, business partner, colleague, etc. – who has agreed to exchange content with you, so that you can blog on each other’s sites. Of course, guest blogging opportunities can also come up by way of energetically reaching out to the blogging world. Like answering an – Read the full article
Interested to write guest content for Lakeshore Branding and expand your readership? Do get in touch! We’re looking for high-quality blog articles on: Internet marketing, social media, search engine optimization / marketing, e-commerce, web design, and other Internet-based businesses, technologies, tools, and applications. Lakeshore Branding is a PR 4 blog, with thousands of backlinks (per Alexa and Majestic SEO). Published guest blog articles are also shared via the official Lakeshore Branding Twitter account. If you’ve written the article, just E-mail it along with links and images you’d like to accompany the text with. We’ll proofread and spell-check it then let you know immediately when the article is going to be up on the site. If you haven’t written the article, kindly consider the following guidelines we have for guest blog posts: Guest blog posts must be original and may not have been published elsewhere online already. All submissions will be verified before publication. The post must be grammatically correct and – Read the full article
As writers, we love what we do. (Right?) We are able to put information, ideas, and opinions in print to help our readers. As a bonus, we get paid for it. It doesn’t matter what our style is; formal, editorial, or whimsical, our words can send a powerful message to readers. And if we want to capture and hold our audience’s attention, we know that a compelling message with strong headlines and a decent flow of ideas are a must. For the longest time I was convinced that my words alone could paint the perfect portrait. Then I realized that perhaps my words alone were not enough. Simply constructing the proper syllables didn’t always capture the targeted audience. However, the right photo will typically catch the eye of most people. Even the best writers have benefited from using photos in magazines. Why not blogs? How to Find the Right Photo There are two options when you are considering the addition – Read the full article
Who knew the power of blogging would explode like it has? It seems like everyone has a blog now, from stay-at-home moms to chefs to local business owners. Blogging is a powerful Internet marketing tool for local businesses as it gives you a new, yet subtle way to promote your company. Think of a blog as a way to communicate to the local community without all the business jargon. The point of a blog should be to put out information only. Write about relevant topics that relate to your business and give important facts that people want and need to know. Avoid being a salesman in your blog or people won’t read it. But provide an invaluable resource that people trust and you will build credibility within your community and generate more traffic. 5 hidden benefits of blogging for local business Change your perspective. Blogging forces you to examine your industry from all angles, not just as a provider of – Read the full article

SEO isn’t for banal and unpopular niches—this is what some business owners believed when I first introduced them to search engine optimization. They thought SEO was only for popular businesses that people regularly search. So I explained that this notion was one big fallacy. I even elaborated that banal and unpopular niches were the ones that needed SEO the most. So you heard it right. SEO is for banal and unpopular niches. Actually, one of the reasons why SEO was created was to promote businesses that were still unheard and unpopular to people. During the early years of search engine optimization, it was actually the businesses and companies from the not-so-popular industries that made use of SEO’s capability to rule the then-uncrowded search engines. SEO Methods to Promote your Unheard Niche: Keyword research Through extensive and proper keyword research, banal niches can find their market with ease. Keywords are like map pins on search engines: they give you an idea – Read the full article
Writer’s block happens to everyone at some point or another, and sometimes it may feel like there is no way around it. Maybe you’ll stare at your computer screen for a few hours, a few days, or even longer. You’re just stuck. You try taking a break, watching some television, getting some fresh air, or doing anything to try to find a small amount of inspiration to get you writing. There has to be something to help you get to writing. You simply can’t be stuck forever. This has happened to me and I know it will happen again. Thankfully, I’ve found some methods from personal discovery and reading others’ experiences to help me find inspiration when it seems I never will. I’ll share these tips (for content creation) with you. Hopefully, they’ll help you when it seems like you may never type a useful word again. Read over past posts You may have already written about your as-of-yet unwritten post. – Read the full article
Link building is a great tool to help the popularity of your blog or website (in the eyes of your audience) and gain authority (in the eyes of search engines). This is all assuming you go about it the right way, though – buying links will only work so far, and if you always go for the low-hanging fruit of spammy blogs that automatically accept your articles, you’re more likely to be penalized than helped. Relevancy While it is definitely possibly for you to post on a completely irrelevant blog and link back to your website in your author bio – it is ultimately best to focus on the relevancy of the topic of the blog – writing about your green products on a green lifestyle blog. More often than not, unfortunately, that kind of serendipity doesn’t happen too often. Most people will focus on niches that are more tangentially related – for example, if you maintain a guide to – Read the full article

We have witnessed a dramatic evolution in media in the past few years – the media elite matter less every day, everyone is the media, and everyone matters. Reaching the big media gatekeepers of yesterday is no longer the challenge. Now the challenge is effectively reaching the audience that will be interested in hearing your story and engaging with you. Fortunately this new media environment has had great benefits for small business PR, giving small business owners more power to disseminate their message and reach their target audiences. Here we offer some of our best, cost-effective PR tips for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Create a Press Release There are several cheap and free options these days for issuing a press release. Platforms such as PR Web offer business owners access to a large network of media outlets and bloggers on the cheap, while giving them the ability to target specific and relevant audiences. You may also want to consider submitting your press release to the editors of specific news outlets you are trying – Read the full article