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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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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From Mother’s Day Contests to Mother’s Day themed promotions, here are 5 creative Mother’s Day Marketing ideas that will help you bring more customers in your door.

1. Create a Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Many people like to buy their mom a special gift on Mother’s Day.  You can tap into that need by creating a special Mother’s Day Gift Guide.

Stephanie Penn-Danforth of Daily Venus Diva, an online life, style and fashion magazine for curvy women, says that by dedicating a shopping guide to Mother’s Day gift ideas and promoting it with a press release; they attracted a substantial amount of new customers to their online retail store last Mother’s Day, and is going to do the same promotion again this year.

2. Hold a Mother’s Day Contest

Sarah Plasky from Aquavation, a site that creates customized 22 oz. sports water bottles for a cause, suggested that you hold a Mother’s Day themed contest. Invite people to submit their favorite “Mom Memories” to be entered in a drawing and then feature their entries as a post on your blog.  Entrants will share their “featured post” on your website with everyone they know which drives people to your website and increases visibility.

Other Mother’s Day contest ideas include holding a “Moms that look like Celebrities” look-alike contest, Mom of the Year, Why My Mom Rocks, Mother’s Day Makeovers, and even “Best ‘Adopted’ Mom”  (honoring those people who influenced someone’s life but was not their biological mother.)

3. Offer a Mother’s Day Gift with Purchase

This Mother’s Day marketing idea is one of the most popular, from restaurants to retail and every kind of business in between.  Build more buzz by offering a free bonus with purchase, such as a free dessert, for example.   This kind of promotion is very popular at department store beauty counters.  You’ll see high end retailers offering free limited edition beauty kits (sample sized items) with purchase and women love it!

Whatever you offer, make sure that it’s something that moms want (or people want to give to their moms).  Other free gifts with purchase include free flowers, free drinks, free appetizers, free cash (think “Kohl’s Kash”) and more.  The Arizona Diamondbacks has a popular Mother’s Day giveaway every year.  This year they are giving away a free pair of Arizona Diamondbacks themed earrings to the first 5,000 moms in attendance.

4. Offer Mother’s Day Themed Items for Sale

Create a special Mother’s Day only offering which builds a sense of urgency to buy from you before the deal is over.  Flancer’s Restaurant in Gilbert, Arizona, has created a special Mother’s Day Brunch, and I’m sure it will be an astounding success given the fact that Flancers does not regularly serve brunch and whatever kind of food they cook is always amazing.  Having a Mother’s Day Special offer of any time can create excitement and additional sales for your business.

Another idea comes from Amanda Koraska from Flat Creek Estate Winery & Vineyard in Marble Creek, Texas.  They often create custom wine labels for weddings and translated that idea in a way that allowed them to offer a once in a lifetime Mother’s Day gift.  As part of their annual Mother’s Day brunch, they hosted a family photo shoot at the vineyard and used the pictures to create custom wine labels that could be placed on a guest’s favorite bottle of wine.

And you don’t have to have a tangible product to sell either.  Debra Cohen from the Homeowner Referral Network, a Nassau County, New York, online referral network for home improvement professionals, created a special package specifically for husbands to give their wives for Mother’s Day.  For any package purchased as a Mother’s Day gift, she offered an additional 3 hours of free consulting which increased the value of their purchase.  It worked for her!!

5. Create Content Featuring Moms

If you want to do something more subtle than hang big signs or banners touting your Mother’s Day sale, you can create content about mothers, for mothers, or celebrating mothers.  If you are a photographer, you could create a photo display featuring local mothers or offer free Mother/Daughter pictures on your Facebook page and then feature each picture in the days leading up to Mother’s Day.

Racheal Cook of The Yogipreneur, a business consultant who specializes in mindful marketing training specifically for healing and helping professionals. generated several hundred leads for her business last year by creating a series of video Skype interviews with her favorite mama-preneurs - women who have built and run small businesses while raising young children.  The videos were featured on her blog and on her YouTube channel and were a big hit.

There are many more marketing ideas that you could do on Mother’s Day to build buzz for your business.  What are some of your ideas?  I absolutely LOVE hearing from you!

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas, grab a free e-book called “Build Buzz for Your Biz, 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing Strategies That Will Get You Noticed” at http://23kazoos.com.

Wendy Kenney the Founder of 23 Kazoos, a Marketing and Public Relations firm in Phoenix, Arizona, that is relentless about results.  She is the bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Business available on Amazon.com, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday.

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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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3 Questions to Ask to Avoid SEO Keyword Stress!

1. What is most important to your SEO strategy?

If you just want to add a few, major keywords to your site, don’t spend a lot of time on research. Figure out the top keywords you want to use, and start using them in your online copy and social media efforts.

These words should work with your overall, marketing goals. For example, if you sell a specific product like, Green Square Widgets, you’ll want to focus on the top keywords related to this product.

Then, test them to see how it’s going. This works well if you are a new entrepreneur and don’t have time to do a full, SEO campaign. You can start small, see how it goes and then go from there.

2. What are your competitors doing?

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time on SEO research, check out your competitors. Go to their sites and see what words they are using. Also, look up your top keywords on the search engines, and look at what sites show up first on the list. This way, you’ll have a better understanding of which companies you are competing with and which words your competition is using to gain online awareness.

3. Is it worth it to hire an SEO copywriter?

If you really want to gain an advantage over your competition and show up on the top of search engine lists for your keywords, it’s important to hire a professional, SEO copywriter to help you. This expert can handle the entire research, writing and monitoring process for you for the best results.

And while this may be an expensive process, it may mean the difference in staying at the status quo or increasing sales and online awareness significantly. And if you don’t want to pay for ongoing SEO after your initial project is completed, you can always obtain training to do it yourself, or hire someone in-house to do it for you.

SEO Provides a Competitive Advantage.

If you sell products and services online, you need SEO in order to compete. And know that it takes time and effort to see results. You can create successful, SEO activities on your own, but if you don’t focus on a specific goal, the amount of work and research can be overwhelming.

The best solution is to hire a professional, SEO copywriter to manage the entire process for you. This way, you won’t feel overwhelmed, and you’ll be more likely to see success.

And if you don’t think you can afford to hire someone, be creative. Research freelancers online, check for students willing to help you at a local university, create a trade situation, or think of another way to get SEO assistance. Then, monitor the process and check the results to avoid wasting time and money. And if it’s successful, you can expand your SEO program at that time.

Remember, SEO was created to help you increase online awareness. Instead of getting overwhelmed, focus on top keywords relevant to your marketing goals and be sure to provide value to your customers. This way, you’ll save yourself some stress, and the search engines will start noticing your site. Most important, you’ll begin to attract new customers interested in what you have to offer.

For additional help with your SEO, please write to me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com, or click here for more information on creating your own SEO program for your business.

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But don’t despair! Use this opportunity to learn from your mistakes, and to create a more successful campaign next time, ask yourself these questions:

•    Did you give your customers what they were expecting?

If your customers signed up for your e-mails to receive valuable information, news and insights from your company, they probably do not want to hear your sales pitch. Take a look at your e-mail campaign again.

Did you give your customers what they asked for when they registered, or did you surprise them with information they did not want? If so, stop this practice. Otherwise, your e-mail address and messages will go straight to the spam filter list. Plus, you’ll lose a lot of business.

•    Did you provide value?

No one likes to receive e-mails pitching the latest Webinar, sale, coupon, event, etc. Instead, your customers want to know what’s in it for them. Provide valuable information they can use and make it worthwhile for them to read your e-mail.

If you need to sell something, that’s fine. Just make sure you offer more substance than sales. This way, you will establish a reputation of providing value, and your customers will be more likely to read your mail, hear what you have to say and forward your message to others.

•    Did you test the results?

Are you measuring how many people clicked on your links, read specific copy, opened your e-mail and when, etc.? If not, how can you possibly know what is working and what isn’t?

Test different types of content, the time you send your e-mail, various responses, and other data important to your overall goals. This is the only way to discover what your customers want to read, when they want to read it and how often. Then, you can fulfill their needs the best way possible and have a more successful campaign.

E-Mail Success Takes Work.

People are inundated with items in their Inbox. To beat the competition, it’s necessary to discover what your customers want and give it to them… when they want it. And this takes time and effort.

You need to test variants on the copy, links, sending times, information, calls-to-action, graphics, and more. Then, it’s necessary to review the results and regularly monitor the information that your customers want to receive from you. This way, you can develop long-term customers who look forward to receiving your messages and are willing to share them with others.

Do you need help crafting the right SEO copy and e-mail messages for your customers? Please contact me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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