If you find that you need a little more help writing content for your blog the following tips may give you some ideas, of where to go to be inspired. Using some free tools that are available on the Internet to grow your knowledge about your niche and encourage conversation with your followers.

Google Alerts – You can set up Google alerts to find out what people are saying about a company, its products, the industry you are in or your niche. The alert can be edited to find web pages, newspaper articles or blogs. Google checks regularly for results in your chosen fields and sends an email to you daily (or as the news happens if you have elected for that).

Blog directories – Technorati and Alltop are good sources for finding what other bloggers are saying about your niche. Both have comprehensive lists that are categorised supplying you with a wealth of information from the blog world.

Subscribe - Follow and subscribe to other bloggers who are experts in your field. This will keep you informed and in the know. Find out what they are discussing so you can gain inspiration from their writings.

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You can read part 1 of this post here. Below is the continuation – part.2

Because the name and subject line may be all your prospects/customers see in their Inbox, it’s important that first impressions get across as much as possible to achieve higher ‘open’ rates.

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If you are working on your own, you will often have those frustrating moments, when you are busy getting the work done, trying to concentrate, and your phone rings. Do you answer and lose the moment? Or do you switch it off to go to voicemail? It’s even worse when you are attending a business meeting, the phone rings and you think it may be a new potential client. Can you afford to miss this lead?

That’s why many small business owners use one of the 3 types of business calls delegation: call answering, call handling or call managing.

Call answering is the simplest and the cheapest form of virtual reception. Usually it’s handled by teams of people so that there is always someone available to answer incoming calls. Call centres have advanced IT systems installed, that tell them in an instant which company the call is for, how they need to answer it and how to pick up a message. The conversation will go something like this:

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Freelancing and consulting can often seem like an impossible juggling act, but if you keep these seven practical business tips in mind, your business will go from strength to strength.

Work out what you’re best at and express it clearly on all marketing material – niche marketing is a simpler and more profitable way to grow your business, rather than trying to be everything for everyone. The more detailed your customer avatar is – the simpler it will be for you to find them, connect with them and offer something of value. To start creating your customer avatar think of the following questions:

• Who is my ideal customer? Who would I like to work with?
• Are they able to pay my fees? Will they be willing to pay my fees?
• What problem do they have in life, that my offering will help them solve?
• Why is it important to get it solved?
• How many of those customers are out there in the marketplace?
• WHERE… (do they work? Where do they study? Where do they live?)
• WHAT… (do they eat, drink, read, listen to, are interested in?)
• HOW… (do they look for new products or services, do they choose their suppliers, do they pay the bills?)

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Guest post by Barry James, Angel Revolutions.

Are newsletters a waste of time? Yes and no!

But if they take too much time to write and too much time to read then they do just waste everyone’s time.

The pace of life is such these days that it’s difficult to find the time to read a full newsletter – even if most of it is interesting. (Let’s face it the ‘filler’ articles that make up the bulk rarely are).

How much more difficult to find the time to write the stuff – especially if hardly anyone’s going to read it! continue