North x East North x East North x East is a blog about business and entrepreneurship, blogging, marketing and startups. 
Articles
Why Guest Blogging is a Powerful Way to Gain Exposure for Your Blog
2009-09-18 00:06:00 Every blogger has been there: you’ve been blogging for a few weeks, but not many people other than your close friends and relatives every stop by. You ask your readers a question, and the response is a resounding silence. You need to find ways to gain exposure for your young blog. And guest blogging is one of ... More About: Blogging , Blog , Exposure , Guest
Seven Ways to Impress Your Clients ? And Win Repeat Business
2009-08-22 18:49:00 Ali Hale is a freelance writer and blogger. You can find her all over the net, but especially at her home blog, Aliventures. When I started out freelancing, the thought of having clients was quite scary … though the thought of having no clients at all was even scarier! Something about the word clients implied that ... More About: Business , Clients
5 Internet Marketing Techniques You?d Be A Fool Not To Practice
2009-08-01 00:24:00 Guest blogger Jimi Olaghere is a young business owner who runs Broke Tycoon, a blog and forum with advice for business and marketing techniques. It’s no secret that the internet is a very saturated place. According to Archive.com, if you are planning to put some sort of content on the internet you have 85 billion competitors! ... More About: Marketing , Internet , Internet Marketing , Practice , Fool
Select Good Customer Support Service when You Create a Website
2009-07-30 00:03:00 Almost everybody has heard about outsourced website builders, they are so popular today. They offer anyone the possibility to create their own website really fast. Website builders provide all necessary tools for creation of website in a quite short period. It seems to be rather practical especially if you are not a webmaster, programmer ... More About: Service , Customer , Support , Good
Around the Web: Telecommuting is a Quiet Environmental Success Story
2009-07-29 05:10:00 Our friends at GreenNationToday.com make the case that telecommuting is much better for sustainability and the environment than traditional work modes. We say that the same applies to the freelance workforce, who share many of the beneficial aspects of the telecommuter’s working style. As stated by Richard Blake from GNT: One of the most ... More About: Story , Environmental , Success , Success Story , Telecommuting
Announcement: FreelancerMagazine and NorthxEast.com to Merge
2009-07-01 17:35:00 I am pleased to announce that NorthxEast.com and FreelancerMagazine.com will soon be merging and operating as one site. Our combination unites two complementary resources, with NxE aimed at providing advice and resources for independent bloggers, and FM providing additional resources on marketing, productivity, self-management, and more. What this means for our readers: All articles, including new ones ... More About: Blogging , Announcement , Merge
Review: Seo-semantic-xhtml.com
2009-06-24 16:46:00 Due to a recent project time crunch, I decided to outsource some XHTML/CSS work and hired Seo-semantic-xhtml.com to convert designs into XHTML. Here’s a quick run-down of how it went. Why I Chose Seo-semantic-xhtml.com: I was quite impressed by their client list, which includes Sony Pictures , Columbia, and Mobile Illumination. Equally as impressive was their portfolio and coding style. SEO-Semantic-XHTML.com?s customer ... More About: Safari , Opera , Review
Brighton Entrepreneur Launches UK?s First Online Accounting System Dedicate
2009-06-20 20:38:00 Brighton-based entrepreneur Darren Fell has launched www.Crunch.co.uk; the UK?s first online accounting system aimed solely at freelancers. Fell, who previously built and sold email marketing firm Pure for $7.8m last year, has been working on his latest project for the past 18 months. Crunch.co.uk allows freelancers to manage their entire accounts, invoicing and expenses on a secure ... More About: System , Entrepreneur , Brighton , Online , Accounting
The Blog-Myth Revisited: Why You Need a Blogging System
2008-05-15 11:37:00 When you start a new blog, putting out a new post every day doesn’t feel like a lot. But how long can you keep it up? The initial passion keeps you going for a while, and after that you keep moving because of your strong commitment. But you are glued to your blog, and your blog is glued to you. Your blog will suffer from every life event that takes up your time (sickness, family matters, work), and your life will suffer from the fact that you can’t get away and leave your blog without risking its success. As the best-selling book, The E-Myth Revisited, puts it: you have created yourself a job, not a business. You are working in your business, not on it. Or in blogging terms: you are working in your blog, not on it. You Need a System If you are like most serious bloggers, you have made a sacred promise to write something consistently to keep your blog going. Maybe you even post in advance to cover for the short breaks, but still your blog is tied to your personal ability ... More About: Blogging , Blog
How to Take a Break Without Breaking Your Blog
2008-05-05 14:21:00 It’s again the time of year when people start planning their vacations. But not everyone: most bloggers can’t even dream of taking a break. In many ways, bloggers are like entrepreneurs, and the most serious ones actually consider their blogs as businesses. And unfortunately, most entrepreneurs have one tricky problem: they don’t know how to take a break and relax. Why relax? Photo by Rick Harris Sure, blogging is your passion. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be doing it. But quite often, getting some distance to the thing you do from day to day will help you improve. When you are relaxing and don’t have to keep pushing out content to your blogs, your mind does its own work, looking at your business from a distance. It starts to see things that you could improve, it notices your strengths and weaknesses. And most importantly, the time away refuels your passion. After a few week’s break you are filled with new energy to pursue your goals with new... More About: Break , Blog , Breaking
Six Impossible Things You Can Do To Improve Your Blog
2008-04-24 08:08:00 How many impossible things did you do last week? None? If so, it’s about time to raise the bar. This week, I’m proposing to you, six impossible things that will make your blog more interesting, more appealing, or just that little important bit more popular. But how do you do impossible things? You can’t. If something really is impossible, then by definition, it is: not possible; unable to be, exist, happen, etc. unable to be done, performed, effected, etc.: an impossible assignment. The trick is to know the impossible things from ones that just seem impossible: Landing to the moon? Impossible . Curing Polio? Impossible. Driving a car without a horse? Impossible. Sailing to India? Impossible. The Internet? Impossible. You get the picture. Most of the big inventions were considered impossible long before anyone dared to try them out. But history shows that the doubters (most of the human kind) were wrong. Those things weren’t really impossible - just hard to... More About: Blog , Things , Improve
The Reader’s Point of View: The Irritating Side of Blogs
2008-04-11 13:37:00 I’m not writing this post as a blogger but as a reader. And as a reader, I’d like to share some thoughts about the most irritating aspects of many blogs.1. It’s full of clutter. Ahoy, an about-page ahead! Dodge the “get my free e-book”-link and return fire on the recent comments-list. We’re almost there after we flank all those ads. It sometimes amazes me how so many bloggers still haven’t understood the importance of uncluttering your blog. The message is everywhere! Minimalistic designs are pop. And it’s easy to see why; blogs that are full of clutter will cause information bloat. Readers want a clear direction to follow when reading a blog. I, for one know that I do. Do your readers a great favour by making your blog(s) look more like NxE or Skelliewag than JohnChow.com. Only John Chow can pull off John Chow [dot] com. 2. The blogger doesn’t answer comments. Sometimes, I would come across a good thought-provoking post that begs for a comment/discussion. So I... More About: Blogs , View , Point , Side , Irritating
How To Show That You Are Serious About Blogging
2008-04-04 14:09:00 Everyone wants to be taken seriously. But when you are building a popular blog and an influential role in the blogosphere, this becomes a matter of life and death. If your readers, other bloggers and potential advertisers don’t think you are here to stay, they won’t bother investing their time and effort - not to mention their money - to your goals. Which means hard times for you. To get where you are trying to get to, you need to convince a significant group of people to believe that you’re not just more wannabe blogger, but someone to look out for. Someone who will make a difference. But how can you show your seriousness, then? This is a big topic, and I’m still working on it as we speak, so I decided to ask a few of my favorite big shot bloggers for their insight. Skellie, Leo Babauta, Brian Clark, and James Chartrand are all recognized as authorities - serious bloggers, in other words. The official answer: Be consistent Photo by rvsv Here’s what th... More About: Blogging , Show
Be Insanely Useful and Make Your Readers Come Back
2008-03-25 06:51:00 Most people don’t read blogs. They let their eyes wander through the text hoping to spot a new, exciting idea, a handy tip, or a new way to look at world events. As bloggers, our job is to give them what they are after - quickly, because if we fail to do that, they will ignore us. Maybe for good. Here’s how you can be insanely useful and make sure you won’t be ignored again. Make your point crystal clear I come to your blog and start checking out your latest post. If in five seconds it’s still not clear to me what your post is about, you’ve lost me. It’s cruel, I know, but the world is full of great blogs so unless we’re friends, I’ll move on to the next blog. But there are ways you can use to increase that five seconds to ten, and then to actually reading the full post: Use a descriptive headline: This has been said many times. The headline needs to catch my attention, or otherwise you won’t even get that five seconds I promise... More About: Readers , Back
Love and The Other Ingredients for a Perfect Blog
2008-03-05 12:54:00 What drives you to blog? Is it for money, or perhaps fame? When we read and write about blogging, we usually have one clear picture in our head: We want to be Darren Rowse. Or maybe it’s John Chow or Shoemoney for you? But still, someone who makes his living from running a blog of his own. A ‘problogger’. There’s nothing wrong with that picture. But often, this is not only reason why we blog. That’s why for today’s post I went to collect a broader list of reasons why people decide to start blogging. Some of them are related to making money, and some are not. Take a look at the list and see if you can find your reasons included. If not, share them in the comments! It will be fun to compare our expectations. Opinions An opinionated blogger is an interesting blogger. The great thing about blogging is that it lets you speak freely about things you believe in and challenge the rest of the world with your ideas. Topics can range from politics to busine... More About: Love , Blog , Ingredients , Perfect
Ten Practical Tips for Writing in English
2008-02-26 13:24:00 Online opportunities are not created equal. Although access to the Internet is open to everyone, and the cost of publishing your thoughts are minimal, language gives a huge advantage to those who have learned English as their first language. They can reach the whole world by writing in their own language. For the rest of us, it requires a bit more work. I’m from Finland, a country of 5,2 million inhabitants at the northern end of Europe, right between Sweden and Russia, so when I started blogging, my decision was easy: if I wanted to reach more than a handful of people, I had to go with English. If you speak French, Spanish or Chinese, there is a bit more incentive for writing in your own language, but even then, the only way to reach the whole population of our planet is to write in English. It’s not always easy, so that’s why today I am sharing with you the ten most useful and practical tips for writing in a foreign language that I have learnt during my blogging ... More About: Writing , Tips
Three Common Interview Mistakes And How You Can Avoid Them
2008-02-20 05:55:00 Bloggers love interviews: Interview s are quick to write, easy to promote, and provide a nice way to escape blogger’s block. There is just one problem: People don’t read interviews. But it doesn’t have to be like that. In this article I will share three common mistakes that make your readers skip interviews and browse to the next blog. When you recognize the mistakes and follow these simple tips, blog posts will soon be some of your most popular content. Mistake #1: Putting the wrong person in the center of attention First of all, people come to your blog to get something for themselves: advice, inspiration, ideas, or maybe a good laugh after a stressful day at work. Second, the reason why they come to your blog (and not to Joe’s from next door) is that they like you and want to hear what you have on your mind. And only third, they might be willing to hear about someone else. It’s not about you. It’s not about the person you interview. It’s all about th... More About: Common , Avoid
Writing an eBook For Your Blog
2008-02-12 12:35:00 Bloggers can do amazing things with an eBook. Whether it’s 10 or 200 pages, en eBook can be used as a subscriber or newsletter sign-up incentive, a viral promotional tool or sold for 100% profit through your blog. This post will describe what you need and the approach you should take to finally start and finish the eBook you’ve always wanted to publish. What kind of eBook should I write? When answering this question, form follows function. The amount of work you need to put in will depend on what you want your eBook to do. Encourage subscribers — a report of anywhere between 5 - 30 pages should be sufficient to motivate potential subscribers to action. Offer the eBook download via your feed footer only, which makes it essential that visitors subscribe before they can download it. Instead of trying to write a miniature book, I’d suggest expanding on one of your most popular articles or exploring one of your blog’s key concept in more detail. If you&rsquo... More About: Writing , Ebook , Blog
Six Simple Things You Can Do To Enjoy Blogging More
2008-02-05 12:12:00 Whether your blogging goals are to make money online or become the most popular blog in your niche, there’s one goal bloggers don’t talk about enough: to enjoy what is, first and foremost, a hobby and an intellectual pursuit. With all the pressure to write posts that do well on social media, ‘network’ with influential figures and simply publish content on a regular basis, blogging can start to feel a lot like work rather than something we do for fun. In this post, I want to share five simple things you can do to start enjoying blogging more — which is also one of the simplest ways to increase the quality of your blogging. 1. Keep track of milestones. Things like reaching 100, 1,000 or 10,000 subscribers, getting an email from a popular blogger, making the front page of Digg or getting your first AdSense check are all important blogging milestones. Keeping track of them on a time-line allows you to identify both purple patches and troughs, but most impo... More About: Blogging , Enjoy , Simple
How To Talk To Bloggers
2008-02-01 05:52:00 The ability to talk with a network of bloggers — and maybe even some high profile ones — is an incredible boon for any blogger. Dialogues with other bloggers can result in good advice, answered questions, links, opportunities and some very interesting conversations. Unfortunately, many bloggers have a habit of approaching relationship building with other bloggers in entirely the wrong way. In this post, I want to share everything I’ve learned about talking to bloggers, whether they’re Brian Clark or one of your most loyal reader. Be intriguing. Bloggers will be much more likely to talk to you if they believe you have something interesting to say. What aspect of you or your blog would be of specific interest to them? There are a few things bloggers enjoy hearing about: Successes you’ve had as a result of practicing what they preach. Interesting conversations you’ve had about them with others. An unusual time/place where the blogger’s name ca... More About: Talk
Like It Or Not: Blogging Is Public Speaking
2008-01-23 06:41:00 Do you get sweaty palms, an increased heart rate, or feel like you are going to faint when you have to make a presentation in front of an audience? Would you like to improve your public speaking skills and enhance your blogging at the same time?Public speaking and blogging are similar in many ways and particularly because they both require you to make an immediate connection with your audience. Additionally, how you choose to present yourself, whether speaking publicly or blogging, will ultimately determine how people view your tone, your image, and your brand. Some other complimentary similarities between the two include: You are putting yourself out there in front of the masses (sometimes this invites criticism) Public speaking and blogging are both acquired skills (for most) You must be able to effectively communicate a message So it would stand to reason that if you improve your public speaking skills then your blogging talents would be enhanced too. How do you feel about pub... More About: Blogging , Speaking , Public Speaking
31 Days to Becoming a Better Blogger
2008-01-17 08:59:00 A task a day, for one month. Some are very little, others will take a little while, all of them will make you (and your blog) better. Make the next month your best blogging month yet — one day at a time. Day 1. Write a better ‘About’ page. A more gripping About page will help convert more new visitors into loyal readers. You can almost guarantee an effective About page by answering the question: “What does this blog have to offer?” Day 2. Start using more images in your posts. Readers like images — they help set the tone of your blog post, illustrate metaphors and generally make your posts more interesting to look at. You can use a free stock photography service, but you can also use sensational Flickr images. Day 3. Write a week’s worth of posts in advance. Developing the habit of writing in advance will give you a safety net of content to fall back on when you’re lazy, busy or uninspired. Writing and posting in the same time-frame wi... More About: Blogger , Days
52 Post Ideas to Help You Stay Inspired Throughout The Year
2008-01-13 09:46:00 Some post ideas you can experiment with in order to battle the blogger’s block in the year ahead. During the beginning of the year, everything is fresh and we all seem to have a tremendous amount of creative energy, and blogging ideas. However, as the year wears on you might need some inspiration, or a few post ideas to get you over the “blogger block” hump. Since this is my first post after joining the NxE team as a staff writer, I thought that I would give you, the NorthxEast readers a gift that would help you throughout year. The gift that I would like to pass on consists of 52 post ideas that you can utilize in any way that you like, if for some reason your creative juices just are not cooperating. That’s correct, I am just giving them to you, for FREE to use however you like. If you use one of my ideas, and should you be feeling charitable, a link back to NorthxEast or MyTropicalEscape.com is always appreciated, but not required. Blogging consistently o... More About: Ideas , Post , Stay , Year , Inspired
Exposed!! 10 Secret Habits of Top Successful Bloggers
2008-01-09 04:07:00 There are a number of habits that separate top bloggers from the rest. They’re not often talked about, though the benefits they yield are very real. I’ve worked with a number of top bloggers, either through writing for them, corresponding with them, or collaborating in other ways. Others that I haven’t dealt with directly, I’ve observed for quite some time. Throughout my dealings with top bloggers, I’ve noticed they have some distinct habits which have allowed them to build and maintain a popular blog. In this post, I wanted to focus only on the habits that many of us are lacking, or have difficulty developing. Other habits (like producing great content) don’t belong to top bloggers alone, so they’re not mentioned here. How many of these top blogger habits could you develop? 1. They’re super-efficient emailers. If you’ve ever communicated with a top blogger you’ll notice that they’ve mastered the art of using email to... More About: Habits , Bloggers , Secret
How to Leverage the Power of Social Media to Market Your Blog
2008-01-04 05:01:00 For bloggers, these social networks are huge reserves of untapped potential readers … a new frontier that most of us have no idea how to navigate. We know how to join and create an account, but how can we tap into that audience in an organic way, without becoming a spammer? It’s possible. Not necessarily easy, but it can be done. Most of our blogs have perhaps a few hundred regular readers (or a few thousand if you’re lucky) … a minuscule amount of people compared to the number of people on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, and more. Personally, I’ve only recently created a Facebook account, but already more than 500 Facebook users have added the “Zen Habits Facebook app” to their profile pages (and that’s growing by dozens a day). This app allows readers to see the latest Zen Habits posts, almost like a feed reader … but more importantly, it allows their friends to see these posts when they go to th... More About: Social , Media , Power , Market , Blog
4 Tips For Making 2008 Your Blog’s Best Year Yet
2007-12-27 11:47:00 We might spend some time pondering the direction of our careers, our families and our personal development, but what about the direction of our blogs? With the New Year fast approaching, I want to share a short manifesto on how to make your blog better than ever in 2008 .In this post, I want to provide a number of strategies you can use to create a robust blogging plan for 2008: something you can use to achieve your blogging goals and make next year the best your blog has ever seen. 1. Set yourself staggered goals I recommend a system of staggered goals. Your biggest goal should be really ambitious and your smallest goal should be too easy. That means you’ll always have success behind you and something to strive for in front. If you wanted to grow you subscriber count, for example, your smallest goal could be to get 100 more subscribers in 2008 and your biggest goal could be to get 5,000. Then you’d place more goal markers in between. By setting staggered goals, you don&r... More About: Tips
Good Bye 2007 - Blogging Goals for the New Year
2007-12-22 08:02:00 Do you plan to let your blog flounder or flourish in 2008. Specifically, what are your blogging goals for the upcoming year? Are you blogging to make money? The above are two pointed questions that I recently asked myself. The end of the year serves a dual purpose for many people. Typically, year’s end is considered a time for reflecting upon what has happened in the past, and it is also a time to look forward in our lives and make a plan for the upcoming months. A year ago I started my blog, MyTropicalEscape with the hopes of inspiring people to pursue their passions and dreams, whatever they may be. The name of the site was really meant as a euphemism for personal freedom and pursuing dreams. However, after I asked myself those pointed queries above I realized that I have been floundering and not flourishing! I haven’t made a penny from blogging and you can too. Do you want to make money online? Let me just state that I did not start blogging with the intent of creating an inc... More About: New Year , Blogging , Goals , Good , Year
15 Powerful Ways to Differentiate Your Blog from the Crowd
2007-12-20 05:15:00 There are millions of blogs out there, and getting noticed amid the cacophony of such a noisy and active crowd is the key problem for any new blogger.In January 2007, I started Zen Habits, and at first I thought there was no way for me to get noticed. Eleven months later, I’m a Top 100 blogger and I’ve learned a few things about how to get noticed. There are millions of blogs out there, and getting noticed amid the cacophony of such a noisy and active crowd is the key problem for any new blogger. In the face of such overwhelming odds, how can you differentiate yourself? How can you get noticed? The main thing: don’t just do what everyone else is doing. Study your field, see what’s being done, and by all means, do the things that are working for others. But do it in a new or interesting way, with some kind of difference that will get you noticed. Here are a few tips on doing that: 1. Blog name. It starts here … how will you be memorable? If you use your... More About: The Crowd , Crowd , Diff , The Crow
15 Remarkable Ways to Thank Your Readers This Festive Season
2007-12-13 06:56:00 Without your readers, blogging would be about as rewarding as fishing in a puddle. For that reason, it’s about time you said thanks! Simply writing the words “thank you” isn’t enough. While it’s certainly a worthy first step, it’s not enough on its own to leave a lasting impression. It doesn’t help your readers, or provide them with value. This Festive Season , why not say thank you by doing something remarkable? Here are 15 clever ideas to get you started. 1. Write a free report or mini-eBook. A 5 – 10 page .pdf might essentially hold the same content as a few blog posts (or one really long blog post) but the format makes it seem a little more valuable. Offer it as a free gift for your readers. It’s a nice way to thank them, and as a bonus, there’s a chance it could go viral. 2. Give away a service for free. Take what you’re good at and use it to help your readers. Whether you offer advice, free logos, gardening tips, Karate secrets, code snippets or ideas, all... More About: Readers
The Sexy Girls of Tech and Politics: The Unbeatable Trio
More articles from this author:2007-12-10 02:55:00 You ever wonder how to hook into the minds of the people who vote for your articles on social media sites? The secret to writing a Diggable post? Figure out what they like, and you’re halfway there. There are three topics that are unbeatable in the world of social media, that almost never miss on Digg, Reddit, Delicious or elsewhere. They are, in this order: Sex, Tech , and Politics . Combine two or three of these, and you’ve got a winner. If you take a look at the top articles on social media sites such as Digg and Reddit, you’ll find that almost all the popular stories fit into one of these three categories. So it makes sense that, in order to catch the attention of Diggers, you have to appeal to their favorite topics. Now, I’m not saying that every post you write should be about one of those three topics. But if you’re going to write about these topics anyway, make them sexier, write a great headline, and see if you don’t have a shot at social me... More About: Girls , Sexy , Trio 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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