As entrepreneurs, I’m sure many of you can relate to the “digital leash.” We get so wrapped up being available to customers, employees and associates, and responding at the speed of light, that’s it’s easy to forget about life priorities. Well, if you disconnect for a short time, guess what can happen?

•    You’ll actually get some rest.

Just by reading an e-mail, you can instantly be whisked back into a stressful, work-mode. Without having to check online messages and voicemail, you can actually let your mind go and completely stop thinking about work!

•    You’ll think of creative, business ideas.

When you are not reminded about all of your work responsibilities, you can think about other things and take in new surroundings. With this inspiring process, your train of thought may bring you back to work ideas and you’ll think of creative, new solutions that can help you run a better business.

•    You’ll discover it’s time for a change.

If you are taking a break from your digital connections, you may realize you are overwhelmed, exhausted and really need a change. If you can’t stand the thought of going back to your usual work activities after your “digital disconnection,” this may be a sign that it’s time to set new goals and pursue other, life dreams.

What will happen when you unplug?

Are you stressed out about work and your daily grind? Well, the Memorial Holiday is this weekend. What a perfect time to “unplug” from all of your digital products and enjoy some time off!

Spend time with positive people, visit new places and unwind. You’ll give your mind and body a break from your usual, work routine. And who knows? During that time, you may come up with some new ideas that will revive your love for your work or even develop goals for new, life dreams.

Take a break already and let me know how it goes!

For more information on running a smoother business while increasing online awareness, please contact me below or check out my free tips and information at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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With this in mind, what actions are you going to take right away to make things happen with your PR and search engine optimization (SEO) activities?

Here are 3 ideas to help you get going:

1.    Send out a press release optimized for the search engines.

Make sure it provides valuable information to your customers and the media.

2.    Write an original article or blog and see if a media venue would like to post the content.

If not, post it on your Website and add your top, SEO keywords to the copy.

3.    Create a targeted pitch for a specific media-member and call that person on the phone.

You have nothing to lose, and some potential publicity to gain.

Just by taking a few, simple actions, you can get your spring activities in full bloom so you’ll be ready for summer. Take some time to plan what you are going to do, and then do it! You may surprise yourself at the results!

What about you?

Do you have some good advice on taking action and completing goals that you’d like to share? Please let me know below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com

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When you can’t take on any more clients and you can set whatever fees you want because you are booked solid with work, this is called a “happiness problem.”

And while it can be wonderful to have all this new work and money rolling in, it can also be a problem in that you now need to deal with an overload of business accordingly to keep customers happy and the referrals coming in to grow your business.

Now, most of you are probably dreaming about this scenario. You would love to have a “happiness problem.” Well, even though the economy is tough, I know several business owners experiencing this right now. Their bank accounts are full, and their products and services are in demand.

These entrepreneurs prove that it’s possible so how can you get to this point too? Well, here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction:

Three Ways to Create a Happiness Problem

1.    Excel at customer service.

Good customer service has become a rarity these days with all of the inexpensive outsourcing going on.

If you can answer customer questions quickly and provide accurate information with a personal touch, you will win new customers and increase positive word-of-mouth.

2.    Exceed expectations.

If you want to stand out from the competition, over-deliver on what your customer is expecting. Keep your promises but also provide something else. This may be an extra discount, free shipping, additional services, a surprise gift, etc.

Let your customers know they are important to you and always give them want they want with a little extra something to make them feel special.

3.    Make communication easy.

Once you provide excellent products and services and make your customers feel important, be sure to have great, communication processes in place. Give your customers referral cards and tell them to share their experience with your business with their friends.

Also, include valuable information on your Website with the appropriate e-mails, phone numbers and addresses. Offer places for people to post testimonials and feedback. If people want to refer you to others, do you make it easy for them? It may sound simple, but with the right referral process in place, you may be just steps away from a “happiness problem”!

Take Action!

Most of the entrepreneurs I know who have “happiness problems” right now work very hard. They care about the products and services that they offer their customers. More important, they take action on good ideas and make things happen.

After all, it’s one thing to dream about charging whatever fees you want and having customers knocking on your door. It’s another thing to take action to make this dream a reality. A “happiness problem” is waiting for you. Use these tips to get going. After all, it’s up to you to make it happen!

If you need help with your communications and SEO copywriting, please write to me below or check out the free tips at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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The Top 5 Reasons You Should Not Write a Blog.

1.  You are a horrible writer.

If you are a terrible writer and hate to write, please do not write a blog. Not only will you provide a bad impression, but most people will not even read your entries because they are so badly written.

2.  You have nothing to say.

What are you going to write about? You need to offer your audience valuable insights, tips and information. If you can’t think of anything to write about, your blog will turn into a weekly nightmare of staring at a blank page.

3.  You can’t provide new entries each week.

Blogs are a part of social media so that means you need to be social and interact with your audience on a regular basis. If you are unable to post a blog entry at least once a week, and respond to reader comments when they are posted, you and your business will appear outdated and that you don’t care.

If you can’t post regularly, it’s better not to post at all.

4.  Your customers don’t read blogs.

Hold on! Before you start writing, have you checked your audience demographics? Do your customers read blogs on a regular basis?

Some traditional companies will not do well with blogs simply because their audience members are not online. Know your customers. If you’re not sure whether or not a blog will work, conduct a test. Write a few blogs and see if anyone comments on them or clicks on the links you provide within the blog entries. If no one responds or reads your blogs, it’s best to find another medium your audience will react to more favorably.

5.  You don’t have an action plan.

What are you trying to accomplish? If you are just writing to write, you are wasting time and effort. Create goals for your blog entries and ways to measure the results. This way, you’ll see what’s working and what isn’t to provide the best content possible in the most cost-effective way possible.

Blogs aren’t for everyone.

Blogs are a great way to interact with your customers and get noticed by the search engines. But if you are a bad writer, can’t provide value and don’t have end goals, your blog may end up wasting you time, money and effort.

Study your audience and figure out what they want and how they like to receive information. Then, set goals based on this information and your overall, marketing plan. At this point, it may be wise to hire an SEO copywriter to write and manage your blog process for you so that you can focus on your core, business responsibilities.

By approaching your blog process in the right way, you can provide value to your audience, increase SEO and improve sales and customer relations.

For more help with your SEO copywriting and blog writing, please write to me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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•    Difficulty turning on the computer to start writing.

•    Endlessly staring at a blank page waiting for inspiration to hit you.

•    The need to step away from the computer to get a drink, snack, go to the bathroom, etc.

Do any of these sound familiar?

If so, you may be plain sick of writing SEO copy and ready for a break. When you just don’t feel like writing, it will show in your content… so if you are feeling burn out, here are…

5 Quick Tips to Recharge your Mind, Body and SEO Writing Spirit!

1.    Go outside.

Take a walk, run a quick errand or just walk outside of your office for a few minutes. By taking some deep breaths of fresh air in a new environment, you can clear your head and get inspired by nature.

2. Have a healthy snack or drink.

While you don’t want to spend too much time away from your office, you may need a boost of energy to get your body going. Opt for a healthy piece of fruit, energy bar or juice drink. And it never hurts to stay hydrated with lots of water. If you drink a caffeinated beverage, know that this will wear off fast, and you may feel worse than before you drank it!

3. Read resources.

If you are feeling uninspired, look through some business books by good authors. Check online articles and read current, news stories. Look at niche publications for your industry. You may find something that sparks your interest and gets your writing juices flowing.

4. Talk to your target market.

Still stuck? It’s time to get in touch with your audience. If you can, talk to someone who matches the demographic you are writing for. Find out what they are interested in right now.

Read through testimonials at your office and talk to your sales representatives about their current customers. This way, you’ll get insider details on what your readers are thinking about write now. Then, you can write about topics they are specifically interested in hearing about.

5. Take time off.

If nothing seems to be working, and you just don’t want to write anything, take some time off to recharge. Either go on a vacation and get a change of scenery, or stay at home and watch some mindless television or participate in your favorite hobby or sport.

Listen to your body. If you are tired, bored and sick of writing, you probably just need a break. Unwind and relax. Then, when you get back to work, you’ll have a fresh perspective and be ready to write again.

The Need for Content is Never Ending.

As small business owners who write SEO copy, we know that content is king, and good copy can help increase online awareness, sales and credibility. And with Web pages, blogs, social media entries, articles, press releases, case studies, and more, the need for copy is never-ending.

It can be exhausting to keep up with all of the writing, especially if you are doing it all on your own. When you start to feel overwhelmed and burned out, take a break! Do what you need to do to relax and get inspired to write once again. Then, you’ll be able to provide valuable content that provides the results you want to see.

Need SEO copywriting help? Please post your questions below or write to me at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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Well, don’t’ stress out. You have no control over what Google does. But there is one thing you can do to ensure you maintain your top SEO rankings, or improve them:

Provide Valuable Content.

Gone are the days of trying to “trick the system” by stuffing as many of your top keywords into your copy as possible. People don’t want to read this mumbo jumbo, and Google realizes it.

In fact, all of the search engines will continue to update their systems to provide the best, competitive value to their customers as possible… so instead of trying to keep up with all of the updates, think like the search engines and provide value to your customers.

How do you provide value and SEO too?

Providing value to your customers along with SEO is not difficult. Simply answer these questions:

• What do my customers want?
• What keeps my customers up at night?
• How can I solve my customers’ problem?
• What’s in it for my customers?
• Why would potential customers want to visit my site?
• What information can I provide within seconds to new site visitors?

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Think about your customers’ needs and fulfill them. This will help you write copy that provides them with value.

Once you have your copy written, add your SEO keywords to the header, sub-head and links within the copy. Don’t go overboard with your keywords. Simply add them to your copy where they make sense.

Then, check your statistics to see what your customers are clicking on and find most interesting. Use this data to provide more information specific to your customers’ needs.

Stop the SEO madness!

If you concentrate on all of the search engine updates and try to create a site specifically for the search engines, you’ll constantly be making updates and working many, long hours. And most likely, you’ll end up with a site that makes no sense to your customers.

Instead of stressing out, stick to your overall marketing goals and think about your target market. By giving your customers what they need, you provide value.

And guess what? Underneath all of the technical updates, that is what Google is still looking for to give Websites higher, search rankings.

Do you have questions about search engine optimization? Please contact me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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When you are not sure what to talk about, think about your target audience.

What do they want to hear? What do they care about right now?

With this in mind, her are some tips to help you come up with some good Tweets:

10 Sweet Tweets for Your Customers

1.    Do you have a special discount to share with your Twitter followers only?

2.    Do you have an exclusive event or contest going on for your Twitter audience only?

3.    Do you have some hot, company news to share?

4.    What is the latest trend in your industry?

5.    What is the latest news in your industry?

6.    Is there a unique holiday or current event you can discuss?

7.    What is going on in today’s celebrity news that relates to your company?

8.    Did one of your followers say something interesting you can discuss?

9.    Did you read an interesting story that will provide value to your customers?

10.    Do you have any survey results or industry statistics to share?

Get Organized.

These are just a few ideas to get your brain going. And once you get started, I’m sure you can think of many more. And if you want to be really organized, you’ll want to set up an editorial calendar. This way, you can plan what kind of information you want to share with your audiences in advance.

For example, maybe you are starting a contest in June, having a big summer sale in July or holding an event in August. You can add these to your editorial calendar in advance and start thinking of interesting ways to talk about them in your Tweets.

And if you really don’t know what your customers want to hear, test the information you post. Which entries get the most feedback? Which comments send lots of people back to your site? You get the idea.

The key is to post information that your target market will be interested in sharing with others. This takes time and effort so if you notice you are posting comments about what you had for lunch, things your kids said after school or how you just had an argument with your spouse, stop! You are getting lazy and need to focus on your audience.

Twitter can be a fun way to interact with your customers and discover more about your target market. If you organize your thoughts and provide valuable and interesting information, you can create a successful social media program that increases word-of-mouth and sales.

Do you need help with the SEO copywriting and social media on your site? Please write to me below or check out my site at www.rembrandtwrites.com for more free tips.

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It’s a matter of setting aside some time and following these…

3 Steps to Get a Big Story in the Media On Your Own

1.    Create a Unique Story.

As I’ve said in previous posts about PR, the key to getting the media’s attention is to develop a unique story specific to a media member’s interests. Instead of approaching hundreds of media members with a press release, create a story relevant to the one writer, editor, blogger, or producer you want to pursue.

Your story needs to be new, unique to your business, and most important, help that particular media member provide valuable information to his or her readers.

2.    Pitch and Keep Quiet!

When you are finished crafting your story, call the media member and give your pitch. Tell that person you created the story specifically for their publication and that they can have the exclusive on it within a certain time frame. This means they are the only ones who can announce the story first.

Provide all of the details and interviews they need to make the story a reality, and then wait. Do not start pitching the story to others. Otherwise, you could burn your relationship with that media member, and word will spread among journalists that you are not true to your word about exclusive stories.

3.    Know When to Move On.

If you did your research and crafted a good story, your exclusive will probably be published by the media member you approached. If not, don’t worry. Many times, their stories are out of their control and based on advertiser needs, trends and current news.

Once you know that the media member you approached is not going to publish your story and the time frame you quoted has passed, you can tell other media members about your story, send out your press release or start over again with a new story specific to a different media member.

Media Members Like to Be First.

If you want to get a big story in a favorite venue, you’ve got to provide a specific media member with a unique story that has not been published. Journalists like to reveal breaking news, trends and data to their audience. And if you can provide this information, you greatly increase your chances of getting some good media-coverage.

Yes, it takes time and effort to create a unique story and pitch it. This is where the skills of a publicist come in handy. But if you can set aside a few hours to take care of this activity yourself, you may see a big story about your company in the media, and your return on investment will be well worth it.

Do you need help building awareness for your business via SEO and public relations? Please write to me below or contact me at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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I’ve heard this a lot lately, and it may be something you are worried about too. They say imitation is one of the best forms of flattery. But you spent time, money and effort crafting the right, search engine optimization (SEO) copy for your site, and you may not appreciate others using it.

Hold on. This situation may not be as bad as you think. After all, people are sharing your content with others. And this may be an opportunity in disguise if you pay attention to these three things when writing and posting copy…

3 Secrets to Turn SEO Copycats into Marketers for your Business

1.    Add Copyright Information.

At the beginning of your articles, blogs and other, SEO copy, be sure to add the author’s name and business.

Also, let people know you are the official owner of this material with a statement at the bottom of your site that includes: Copyright© 2012, Name of Your Company, All rights reserved, and your Terms of Use information. Also add a line something like this: No content on this site may be reused in any fashion without written permission from Name of Company.

2.    Add Links.

If people are going to steal your copy, you might as well make it worthwhile.

Within your SEO copy, provide links to valuable information on your site. This way, people reading the articles will click on the links and visit your site. This will also help with your outside, link ranking with the search engines.

3.    Provide a Teaser.

In addition to the links back to your site, also add a teaser statement to get back to your site such as:

Did you get this article from a friend? Click here to find out what you’re missing.

For more tips like this and access to your free report, visit us at website address.

Do you want to know more about this subject? Click here for the latest, insider information!

This way, readers may feel like they are missing out on some important information and feel the need to visit your Website to get all of the juicy details.

Make SEO Copycats Work for You!

When others copy important information you own, you’ll need to ask them to remove it from their Website. However, some organizations that re-post your SEO copy are doing you a marketing favor. The key is to include the right information in your articles, blogs and Website copy.

Add the appropriate copyright information, names, dates, links, and statements. This way, you can turn re-posted content into a linking gold mine that brings in new site visitors and increases your search engine rankings.

All the best dealing with your copycats. And if you’d like to repost this entry, be my guest. But you better include my name as the author and a link back to Rembrandt Communications at www.rembrandtwrites.com!

Do want more juicy details like this to increase sales, awareness and credibility? Please write to me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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Recently, I spoke to the CEO of Your Dollar Matters, Inc., http://www.theformtool.com, Bob Christensen. As a successful, small business owner who deals with other entrepreneurs in accounting, case management and HR on a regular basis, he is getting the word out about his business and increasing sales via public relations efforts. Here are his insights…

Why did you start Your Dollar Matters?

As a significant purchaser of professional services, particularly from lawyers and accountants, I was often disappointed by the agreements and documents that constituted their final product, which were usually just cut-and-paste hatchet jobs in Word, regurgitations of documents created 20 years ago and reused 1000 times since.

I wanted to provide the market with the kind of professional, form-based product I expected rather than what I was getting. While I don’t mind paying well for expert guidance and advice, compensating someone hundreds of dollars an hour for laboriously tweaking documents they’ve written 100 times before strikes me as ludicrous. I’ll gladly pay by the gram for brains, but not by the pound for the words!

With Your Dollar Matters, we saw an opportunity to do well by doing good: good for professionals who are yoked to their clocks; good for clients who want lower prices and better service; even good for “the system” by improving courthouse and bureaucratic productivity, too, by giving taxpayers a more efficient bang for the buck.

What advice do you have for others starting a new business?

Figure out who needs a better mousetrap then build one that is exponentially better than the best. Before you launch, though, figure out how you’re going to convince your market that it actually needs your better device.

Because, as it should, the market only cares about one question, “What’s in it for me?” A successful entrepreneur needs to have an overwhelmingly convincing answer to that question.

How are you getting the word out about your business and why?

Times have changed. Traditional paid media is fading fast. Consumers, including business consumers, have instant access to what I think of as “crowd experience,” reports on product experiences from users in near real-time.

Our biggest decision was to adopt a “Freeconomics” business model similar to what Facebook, Pandorajam and Twitter have done, where a small minority of users pay for the service while the vast majority get it for free. (Note: “Freeconomics” is a strategy outlined by Chris Anderson in his 2009 bestseller, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price.”) We expected that decision would help us build a user base fast, to which we could later turn for word of mouth (or keyboard), product reviews, testimonials and paid upgrades.

Three of the unexpected consequences of that decision were fascinating. First, overnight TheFormTool found an international following among people who need document assembly on a regular basis. Second, because people could actually count on a real product and a real lifetime license for absolutely free, they stepped up to decisions they otherwise might not have. Finally, the incredibly rapid adoption into other industries – contractors, estimators, environmental engineers, insurance and a dozen others – is possible because people could justify giving TheFormTool a chance because of the low-risk threshold of their decision.

What marketing and publicity strategies have worked so far and why?

As buyers, we all look for the Amazon ratings or online ratings in other virtual stores. We trust those masses of anonymous, prior purchasers. With TheFormTool, our task was to develop a respectably-sized user base just as fast as possible and to give users an opportunity to crow or complain about our product and service.

Now, ordinary people really can assemble the smartest documents™ in the world and they do, easily - the feedback and chatter were stellar. After awhile, the professionals started noticing the chatter, and we began to have opportunities to help them with editorial content, which provided free media coverage, which fed the virtuous circle.

What do you plan to do in the areas of PR and marketing in the future to build awareness and why?

Our job is to expand the user base and continually enhance document-assembly users’ experience so that they come to the point where the reasons for buying are just overwhelming. The best way to do that is to share current users’ experience with the interested public.

That translates into tightly focused attention on our primary vertical markets. We’ll work with PR professionals to identify those markets and to seek and exploit opportunities for press attention within them.

Why is public relations important to your overall, business goals right now?

We want TheFormTool to become as ubiquitous as pen and paper once were. For that, we need awareness among 100 million or more potential, document-assembly purchasers of their need for increased productivity.

We need everyone to agree with us that it’s time for documents to start thinking on their own, for promissory notes to be smart enough to compute their own payments and for a contractor’s bid form to fill itself out, correctly and instantly. Public relations is the most efficient way to accomplish these goals.

What PR and marketing tips do you have for other, new business owners?

Build a story just as fast as possible, but remember that the best stories are not about you or your company. The very best stories are about users and customers. They’re the ones that are reinventing the world.

Thanks for the information Bob. Hopefully, your insights will help other small business owners with their PR and marketing activities.

How about you? Do you have marketing and PR tips for other entrepreneurs? Please write to me below or visit my site at www.rembrandtwrites.com for more information.

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