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16 Mar

Posted at 07:36h in Uncategorized by

You may have seen cartoons and other fun visuals on my site on Wednesdays along with the "wordless wednesday" tag. That's because I'm a huge fan of the Wordless Wednesday site....

08 Mar

Posted at 06:27h in Uncategorized by
If you’ve ever doubted the importance of careful keyword selection when writing blog articles or doing anything else online, I’ve got a great example for you out of my own situational files. While I’m very careful about inserting effective keywords when writing articles, and put a lot of thought into titles or headlines; I’d never really paid much attention to how the name I choose to use has affected by online presence. The thing that you need to know about me is that I use whichever last name seems more convenient at any given time. Sometimes I’m “Beth Hodgson” other times “I’m Beth Graddon-Hodgson”. Much to my husband’s dismay , I don’t think I’ll be using the former online anymore. Here’s why: • Beth Hodgson is not unique, Beth Graddon-Hodgson is. People trying to find me online are getting this gal instead . While she may have red hair and a husband whose name starts with “J” as well, I don’t live in California or have a guinea pig named Snowball. • Point one is causing people to modify their queries. If people searching for me don’t know to throw ‘Graddon’ in there, they’re adding something else to hunt me down. ‘Beth Hodgson WriteSourcing’ ‘Beth Hodgson Toronto’ ‘Beth Hodgson Canada’ and ‘Beth Hodgson writing’. I’m not only hard to find, but this little point is throwing off my ranking success!

03 Mar

Posted at 10:47h in Uncategorized by
Thanks to freelancer Mariana Ashley for this piece.  Many of our readers struggle with the choice, especially with companies beginning to hire again, whether to suffer the slings and arrows of self-employment/entrepreneurship or to go back to a corporate career. Neither choice is "right" or "wrong" - but if you do choose to return to corporate life, here are some great suggestions for the transition! The recent economic recession has not only changed the face of the market, but also the state of jobs. Work is becoming more difficult to come by, and with so many people facing a bleak financial future if they stay on their current career paths, it is no surprise that many freelancers in the public relations field are now going back to full-time positions in order to make ends meet. Transitioning from freelancing to working full-time can be tough. Before you can even make that change, however, you will need to find a job. If you are still looking to stick within public relations, look for leads with your past clients and update your resume to reflect all of your freelance experience. You may also need to brush up on your interview skills if you have not been in the job market for a particularly long time.

15 Feb

Posted at 20:36h in Uncategorized by
Whether or not you were up for some loving this week is inconsequential around here, because we’re ready to get into the spirit of this Hallmark holiday and revisit some of the posts that we loved and that seemed to hit readers with Cupid’s arrow! Okay, now let’s put the cheesy aside and get down to business; here are some of our top posts that really got readers captivated, thinking and discussing! 1.     Blogger Semantics - the term ‘blogger’ is a broad category and at times that can be aggravating.  There was some fun debate happening, but in the end, the general consensus seemed to be that the ‘professional, corporate blogger’ types prefer to steer clear of the ‘blogger’ label because that gets misinterpreted and professionals aren’t always taken seriously as a result. My opinion on this subject hasn’t changed – I still will not call myself a ‘blogger’- but I would like to know how you define these blogger semantics!

03 Feb

Posted at 05:17h in Uncategorized by
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about using a traditional marketing call to action in your blog, and many of the insightful comments lead me to put a little bit more thought into the subject. I’ll be honest, when I began writing that post, I wasn’t even contemplating use of a call to action in a new media way. I was thinking of it in a traditional marketing way; you know, where the end of a direct marketing campaign says “quick calls us because we’ll do good things for you and gives you free stuff” (and often sounds a little more like the furniture salesman who cornered me in the store the other day and said “hey, I’m not supposed to, but if you buy that couch today, I’ll throw in the $75 scotch guard for free” though I’d said I was only getting design ideas). Anyway, nothing against marketing professionals that use that kind of call to action, because there are some scenarios where it’s more than appropriate and necessary. But last week, what I was really getting into was whether or not that specific pitch was appropriate for a blog. While the comments debated the subject, some saying “yes we use a call to action in our blog posts” I began to realize that the used car salesman approach is not the only thing that readers were thinking about. Bonnie nailed it with her comment that “I think it really depends on how the call is written. You can freely include them if you stay away from sounding like a stereotypical used car salesman.” So, let’s look at some other ways that you could reasonably define a call to action with a new media twist.